if  of 


rltttC 


£0e  (Beneffta  of  tft  American 


@  gutfx%  of  i 0e  Origin  anb  ©etjefopmenf 
of  ffle&ifurgEofffle 
£0urc0  fa  f^e  (Unifeb  £fafea 

BY 

Rt.  Rev.  A.  Cleveland  Coxe,  D.D..LL.D. 

Bishop  of  Western  New  York 

Rt.  Rev.  George  F.  Seymour,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Bishop  of  Springfield 

Rt.  Rev.  William  Stevens  Perry,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  D.C.L. 

Bishop  of  Iowa 
and 

Rt.  Rev.  William  Croswell  Doane,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Bishop  of  Albany 

TOif0  cm  ®ppenbtjr 

on  Change*  3ncoqporafeo  info  t &e  (prater  (goo* 

BY    THE 

Rev.  Samuel  Hart,  D.D. 

(goifeb  imtfy  cm  3nfroburfion 

BY   THE 

Rev.  C.  Ellis  Stevens,  LL.D.,  D.C.L. 


New  York 

JAMES  POTT  &  CO.,  PUBLISHERS 

"893 


,  -  •  * , 


313 


Copyright,  1892, 
By  C.  ELLTS  STEVENS. 


Press  of  J.  J.  Little  &  Co. 
Astor  Place,  New  York 


TO 

3o$tt  TOttfiamB,  <©.<©.,  £g.<©., 

WHO  AS 

PRIMATE  OF  THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES, 

AND  AS  A  LEADER  IN  THE 

ESTABLISHMENT  OF  A 

STANDARD    PRAYER   BOOK, 

HAS  PROVED  HIMSELF  SO  WORTHY  A 

SUCCESSOR  OF  THE  VENERATED 

TniS  VOLUME— 

WHICn  GOES  FORTH  FROM  THE  HISTORIC  FANE 

WHERE  THE  AMERICAN   PRAYER  BOOK 

WAS  FIRST  ADOPTED  AND  WHERE 

RESTS  THE  SACRED   DUST 

OF  THE 

FATHER  OF  THE  AMERICAN  CHURCH— 

18 

AFFECTIONATELY  INSCRIBED. 


Mi8i980 


CONTENTS. 


Primitive  Liturgies. 

By  the  Rt.  Rev.  A.  Cleveland  Coxe,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
Bishop  of  Western  New  York. 

The  Reformation  Prayer  Books. 

By  the  Rt.  Rev.  Geoege  P.  Seymour,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
Bishop  of  Springfield. 

Early  American  Prayer  Books. 

By  the  Rt.  Rev.  William  Stevens  Perry,  D.D., 
LL.D.,  D.C.L.,  Bishop  of  Iowa,  and  Historiographer 
of  the  Church. 

The  Prayer  Book  Enriched. 

By  the  Rt.  Rev.  William  Croswell  Doane,  D.D., 
LL.D.,  Bishop  of  Albany,  and  Chairman  of  the  Joint 
Committee  of  the  General  Convention  on  Liturgical 
Revision. 

Changes     Incorporated    Into     the     Standard 
Prayer  Book  of   1  892. 

By  the  Rev.  Samuel  Hart,  D.D.,  Professor  in  Trin- 
ity College,  Hartford,  Custodian  of  the  Standard 
Prayer  Book,  Secretary  of  the  House  of  Bishops, 
Secretary  of  the  Joint  Committee  of  the  General 
Convention  on  Liturgical  Revision,  etc. 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  American  Book  of  Common  Prayer  is 
historically  associated  with  one  sacred  spot.  The 
venerable  fane  of  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia, 
is,  in  a  special  sense,  its  birthplace.  And  on 
that  spot  the  American  Church  itself — as  an  in- 
dependent national  body  owing  no  allegiance, 
save  of  love,  to  the  Mother  Church  of  England 
— came  into  organic  being. 

It  was  there  that  the  first  effort  toward  litur- 
gical revision  was  made,  at  the  first  of  the  Gene- 
ral Conventions  of  the  Church— a  Convention 
presided  over  by  the  then  rector,  William  White. 
Dr.  White  had  been  a  moving  spirit  in  the 
measures  leading  up  to  this  memorable  council, 
and  himself  had  formulated  the  principles  on 
which  the  Church  sought  and  attained  organ- 
ism. He  and  Dr.  William  Smith— also  inti- 
mately associated  with  Christ  Church — were 
chief  promoters  of  the  work  of  revision ;  and 
after  the  Convention  they  were  left  to  complete 
and  issue  the  "  Proposed  Book." 

It  was  on  that  spot  that  the  second  General 
Convention  met.  in  1786,  and  the  third  in  1789. 


Vlll  INTRODUCTION. 

The  last,  which  opened  its  sessions  under  the 
presidency  of  Bishop  White,  and  later  organized 
into  a  House  of  Bishops  and  a  House  of 
Deputies,1  completed  the  Constitution  of  the 
Church,  and  formally  set  forth  the  American 
Prayer  Book.  At  that  altar  the  Holy  Eucha- 
rist was  celebrated  by  Dr.  Smith,  according  to 
the  form  in  the  first  Book  of  Edward  VI.,  as 
adapted  in  the  Scottish  Use — the  adoption  of 
our  present  Communion  Office  immediately 
following  the  celebration.  Before  the  same  altar 
now  rests  the  sacred  dust  of  the  Patriarch  of  the 
American  Church. 

It  was  there  in  1883,  that  the  opening  ses- 
sion was  held  of  that  General  Convention  which 
began  the  work  of  the  new  liturgical  revision 
and  enrichment,  now  ended  by  the  adoption  of 
the  Standard  Prayer  Book  of  1892.  And  as  the 
beginning  of  this  latest  revision  was  marked  by 
services  in  the  ancient  church,  so  the  completion 
of  the  revision  was  also  marked.  For  during 
October,  1892,  while  the  General  Convention 
was  in  session  in  Baltimore  putting  final 
touches  to  the  new  Prayer  Book,  Bishops  of  the 
Church,  held  in  reputation  for  liturgical  scholar- 

1  The  Secretary  of  the  House  of  Deputies — the  cele- 
brated Francis  Hopkinson,  a  vestryman  of  Christ  Church 
— had  been  Secretary  of  Continental  Congress. 


INTRODUCTION.  IX 

ship  and  counting  among  them  those  officially 
connected  with  the  revision  work,  went  from 
the  Convention,  Sunday  after  Sunday,  to  Christ 
Church,  Philadelphia,  and  delivered  an  histori- 
cal course  of  sermons  intended  to  go  forth  in 
published  form,  as,  in  some  sort,  a  popular  in- 
troduction to  the  new  Book.1 

Reference  to  such  facts  as  these — facts  suffi- 
ciently familiar  to  most  Churchmen — may  not 
be  altogether  amiss,  as  furnishing  an  explana- 
tion of  the  present  volume,  and  adding  point 
to  its  pages.  Rather  naturally,  the  course  of 
sermons  was  retrospective.  For  scarcely  a  more 
fitting  introduction  of  the  new  Prayer  Book 
could  be  given,  than  that  supplied  by  a  study 
of  origins.  And  the  treatment  of  the  theme 
thus  selected  has  not  been  limited  to  American, 
or  even  English  sources,  but  widens  into  the 
liturgic  past  of  the  Christian  Ages,  and  stretches 
on  and  back,  even  to  the  day  of  Apostles  and 
Prophets. 

The  volume  now  given  to  the  public  is  not 
merely  one  of  published  preaching,  but  has 
been  carefully  adapted  for  general  readers — so 


1  In  this  course,  Bishop  Doane,  of  Albany,  as  chair- 
man of  the  committee  on  revision,  gave  the  first  general 
public  announcement  of  the  results  of  the  liturgic  action 
of  the  Convention. 


X  INTRODUCTION. 

that  it  goes  freshly  forth.  From  the  olden 
sanctuary  living  forces  reach  out  into  the  time, 
from  memories  of  events  that  live  in  the  life 
of  the  American  Church  forever. 

There  has  been  hope  that  widely  differing 
minds  might  find  these  pages  that  follow,  help- 
ful. Not  merely  among  ourselves  who  claim 
the  Prayer  Book,  but  among  other  many  is  the 
Prayer  Book  loved.  And  there  are  those  of 
every  Christian  name,  who,  in  this,  are  one 
with  us  at  heart,  and  more  and  more  becoming 
so  in  practice.  Nor  is  such  fact  wholly  strange. 
For  all  who  count  themselves  of  English  blood, 
have  in  that  blood  a  bond  to  bind  them  to  the 
Prayer  Book  used  by  all  their  English  fore- 
fathers before  the  days  of  sad  division.  Oth- 
ers in  our  land,  who,  though  not  of  English 
blood,  yet  speak  the  old  English  tongue,  have 
common  heritage  in  sacred  forms  which  mark 
its  holiest  utterance.  And  as  the  forms  them- 
selves are  not  merely  English,  but  of  the  saintly 
past  of  the  Church  of  all  the  saints,  surely 
there  is  hope  here  for  possible  unities  of  the 
future,  for  which  God  may  be  even  now  pre- 
paring. In  these  days,  at  any  rate,  a  widening 
interest  is  felt,  and  very  keenly  felt,  in  what- 
soever has  to  do  with  liturgic  worship,  and 
with  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  And  no 
word  that  one  may  honestly  speak,  even  though 


INTRODUCTION.  XI 

with  an  earnestness  running  counter  to  anoth- 
er's convictions,  will  go  unheeded.  The  Prayer 
Book  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  is  not  for  naught. 


C.  Ellis  Stevens. 

del  phi 
Advent,  1892. 


Christ  Church,  Philadelphia, ) 


PRIMITIVE   LITURGIES. 


PRIMITIVE    LITURGIES. 


The  old  Prayer  Book  of  our  fathers  now 
appears  in  a  new  edition.  After  a  hundred 
years  of  loving  usage  by  them  and  their  chil- 
dren, and  of  steady  gain  on  the  affections  of  the 
American  people,  it  has  been  subjected  to  revi- 
sion, and  has  been  made — not  a  new  book,  but, 
on  the  contrary — an  older  book  than  we  have 
had  before.  The  only  important  changes  are 
restorations.  We  receive,  anew,  some  precious 
features  of  ancient  worship,  which  were  omitted 
by  our  early  revisers  for  reasons  serious  in  their 
day  but  long  since  obsolete.  The  Church  de- 
mands again,  what  was  then  reluctantly  sacri- 
ficed to  external  objections  that  exist  no  more. 

Even  where  they  were,  perhaps,  mistaken,  I 
reverence  the  revisers  of  1792.  Think  what 
difficulties  they  encountered,  in  days  which 
tried  their  spirits.  The  whole  country  was 
impoverished.  Travelling  was  so  expensive, 
and  so  tedious,  as  to  forbid  frequent  gatherings 
for  conference.  Even  correspondence  was  sub- 
ject to  a  heavy  tax  and  to  long  delays  in  transit 
to  and  fro — especially  the  needful  correspond- 


4  PRIMITIVE  LITURGIES. 

ence  with  the  Bishops  of  the  Mother  Church, 
and  with  the  learned  in  Oxford  and  Cambridge. 
Libraries  were  scantily  supplied,  and  liturgical 
works  of  merit  were  very  rare,  and  could  only  be 
imported  at  great  cost.  All  things  considered, 
I  must  regard  the  result  of  their  labours  with 
astonishment,  and  as  evidence  that  the  Holy 
Spirit  was  with  them,  and  answered  their 
prayers. 

When  it  was  resolved  to  submit  their  work  to 
a  fresh  revision,  fears  were  entertained,  even 
by  supporters  of  this  movement,  lest  the  en- 
deared devotions  of  our  childhood  should  be 
superseded  by  something  new  and  strange.  But, 
after  all  that  has  been  said  and  done  ;  after  the 
suggestions  and  discussions  of  long  years  and  of 
many  local  and  some  general  councils — what  a 
eulogy  upon  the  past  is  the  outcome.  Very 
little  has  been  altered,  after  all.  With  the 
more  important  changes  we  are  already  famil- 
iarized by  authorized  use.  Our  services  will  go 
on,  with  no  shock  upon  our  sense  of  continuity 
and  identity.  Even  the  "flexibility"  that  has 
been  conceded,  under  the  pressure  of  mission- 
ary experience  and  because  of  services  greatly 
multiplied,  is  not  designed  to  change  the  order 
of  the  Morning  and  Evening  Prayer,  except 
where  it  is  necessary  or  entirely  acceptable  to 
the  people.     It  is  limited   by  discretion,  not 


PRIMITIVE  LITURGIES.  5 

abandoned  to  caprice:  and  in  all  cases,  is  sub- 
ject to  the  godly  judgment  and  counsels  of  the 
Ordinary.1 

1  The  following  extract  is  from  the  sermon  as  origi- 
nally delivered  in  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia:  "It 
was  a  happy  thought  of  your  rector  to  institute  a 
i\  uir.se  of  lectures  introductory  to  the  new  Prayer  Book. 
He  wisely  judged,  that,  here  and  now,  such  a  course 
might,  for  obvious  reasons,  bo  made  serviceable  to  the 
whole  Church.  Now — because  a  period  of  liturgic 
study  and  of  the  practical  adoption  of  our  Cook  by  the 
most  devout  and  intelligent  Christians  of  our  country 
is  recognized  as  near.  And  here — because  with  these 
hallowed  walls  of  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia,  the  his- 
tory of  the  Prayer  Book  is  identified.  Here  we  are 
worshipping,  to-day,  close  by  the  reverend  relics  of 
your  illustrious  rector,  the  apostolic  White;  with  whose 
life  and  labours,  every  page  of  the  Prayer  Book  is  so 
intimately  associated.  As  one  of  the  few  survivors  who 
remember  his  person  and  his  ministrations,  I  deeply 
feel  the  privilege  of  standing  in  this  pulpit,  where,  for 
more  than  half  a  century,  he  proclaimed  the  blessed 
Gospel  so  faithfully  and  so  well.  And  may  I  venture 
to  say,  that  this  same  pulpit  is  tenderly  endeared  to  met 
by  the  reflection  that  here,  in  old  Colonial  days,  has 
stood  an  ancestor  of  my  own,  whose  bones  repose  in 
your  own  cemetery.  He  died  the  missionary  rector  of 
New  Castle,  Delaware;  in  some  degree  a  martyr  to  his 
zeal  for  the  Prayer  Book,  and  one  of  the  founders  of 
our  national  Church. 

"Yes,  this  is  the  sacred  spot  where  the  revised 
edition  of  this  memorable  year  may  be  appropriately 
introduced  to  the  nation.    For  here,  the  Father  of  his 


6  PRIMITIVE   LITURGIES. 

The  grateful  task  assigned  to  me,  is  introduc- 
tory to  what  will  follow  from  able  bishops  in 
the  course  of  this  book.  It  is  my  duty  to  speak 
of  the  primitive  liturgies  of  the  Christian 
Church,  out  of  which  the  Prayer  Book  is  com- 
piled. In  the  first  place,  let  me  direct  your 
attention  to  a  Scriptural  view  of  the  genesis  of 
liturgic  worship ;  and  so  prepare  you,  in  the 
second  place,  for  what  I  must  say  of  early 
Christian  worship,  and  of  those  treasures  of 
ages  which  it  has  bequeathed  to  us,  in  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer. 

I.  For  the  elements  of  our  liturgical  system, 
we  must  go  back  to  the  earliest  years  of  human 
history.  We  are  told  that  by  the  faith  and  sac- 
rifice of  Abel,  "  he,  being  dead,  yet  speaketh." 
Of  what  does  he  speak  ?  Of  nothing  less  than 
the  Creed  of  all  the  faithful — of  the  Atoning 
Sacrifice  of  the  Lamb  of  God,  to  which  all  the 
typical  sacrifices  of  the  Patriarchal  and  the  Mo- 
saic worshippers  pointed  before  the  Incarna- 
tion ;  to  which  the  sacrificial  commemorations 

Country  was  among  the  first  of  those  who  welcomed  the 
American  Liturgy.  Imagine  his  emotions,  when  he, 
who  had  been  educated  to  pray  for  King  George  and 
the  High  Court  of  Parliament,  heard  the  fervent  re- 
sponses of  his  fellow-worshippers  praying  for  him  as 
their  President,  and  for  the  Senate  and  Representatives 
of  the  young  Republic  in  Congress  assembled." 


PRIMITIVE  LITURGIES.  7 

of  Christian  worship  point  backward  in  like 
manner ;  to  which  the  liturgy  of  Heaven,  now 
and  evermore,  bears  witness  in  the  perpetual 
anthem  of  the  redeemed  :  "  Worthy  is  the 
Lamb  that  was. slain." 

Sacrificial  worship,  inspired  by  faith  in 
Christ,  is  the  only  worship  that  God  accepts. 
Cain,  the  original  of  all  unbelief,  rejected  such 
worship ;  and  he  with  his  empty  tribute  was 
rejected  as  well.  But,  here,  we  must  not  forget 
that  the  sacrifice  of  Calvary  was  the  one  offer- 
ing, for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world,  which 
alone  is  propitiatory.  Once  offered,  it  was 
anticipated  beforehand  and  it  is  commemorated 
until  now ;  but  it  cannot  be  repeated  ;  though, 
thank  God,  it  is  applied  to  our  souls  in  the 
6acraments.  To  this  great  principle  all  Scrip- 
ture bears  witness  ;  more  especially  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews,  which  expounds  the  liturgic 
system,  as  it  existed  before  the  Incarnation,  and 
as  it  was  instituted  by  the  blessed  Apostles 
in  the  nobler  worship  of  the  Christian 
Church. 

And  this  brings  me  to  St.  Paul's  remarkable 
expression  in  the  following  text  :  "I  have 
written  somewhat  boldly  to  you,  my  brethren, 
that  I  might  put  you  afresh  in  remembrance, 
concerning  the  grace  which  is  given  to  me  of 
God  ;  that  I  should  be  a  Liturge  of  Jesus  Christ 


8  PRIMITIVE  LITURGIES. 

among  the  Gentiles,1  ministering  as  a  priest, 
the  gospel  of  God ;  that  the  oblation  of  the 
Gentiles  might  be  acceptable,  being  sanctified 
by  the  Holy  Ghost."  In  this  close  rendering  of 
the  original  I  have  been  forced  to  deprive  it  of 
the  beauty  of  our  Version,  in  order  to  direct 
your  attention  to  the  following  facts:  (1.) 
That  the  Apostle  here  adopts  liturgical  words 
and  ideas,  in  harmony  with  the  sacrificial  teach- 
ing of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  throwing 
great  light  upon  that  Epistle.  Not  less  does  it 
harmonize  with  the  Epistle  from  which  I  have 
quoted  it,  and  to  which,  as  he  declares,  it  sup- 
plied a  key.  (2.)  That  he  thus  asserts  his 
priesthood  and  the  sacrificial  character  of  the 
Christian  worship.  (3.)  That  he  does  this, 
glorying  in  the  grandeur  of  the  Catholic  priest- 
hood, among  all  nations,  as  contrasted  with  the 
isolated  and  effete  and  purely  typical  priest- 
hood of  the  Law.  (4)  That  his  language, 
here,  expounds  the  text  from  Malachi,  with 
which  our  Daily  Service  so  properly  begins, 
when  it  immediately  precedes  the  Eucharist ; 
and  (5)  that  it  lends  illustration  to  the  words 
of  our  blessed  Master  himself,  at  the  well  of 
Samaria  :  ' '  Woman,  believe  me,  the  hour 
cometh,  when  neither  in  this  mountain  nor  in 

1  Rom.  xv.  16. 


PRIMITIVE   LITURGIES.  9 

Jerusalem  shall  ye  worship  the  Father " — that 
is  to  say,  exclusively.  For,  when  it  comes  to 
the  oblation  of  the  Gentiles,  a  Catholic  worship 
is  promised,  according  to  Malachi :  lti  From 
tho  rising  of  the  sun,  even  unto  the  going  down 
of  the  same,  my  name  shall  be  great  among  the 
Gentiles,  and  in  every  placo  incense  shall  be 
offered  unto  my  name,  and  a  pure  oblation  of 
bread  and  wine ;  for  my  name  shall  be  great 
among  the  Gentiles,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts." 
For  a  view  of  this  Apostolic  system  of  worship 
let  me  recall  the  first  pages  of  your  Prayer 
Book.  Have  you  ever  reflected  upon  the  sig- 
nificance of  those  tables  which  meet  your 
eyes  as  you  open  it  ?  They  are  (1)  the  Tables 
for  the  Daily  Prayers  and  Lessons,  with  the 
Psalter,  for  the  weeks  and  months  of  every  year, 
and  then  (2)  the  "Tables  to  find  Easter," 
pointing  to  the  great  Paschal  system  of  the 
Church ;  the  Eucharistic  worship  and  great 
festive  Communion  of  Easter,  with  those  of 
every  Lord's  day  or  weekly  Easter,  and  of  all 
the  satellite  feasts  that  surround  the  Easter 
sunshine.  Grasp,  therefore,  with  respect  to 
public  worship,  these  two  great  ideas  of  the 
Prayer  Book  and  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  :  (1) 
The  perpetual   Scriptural   ministering  of   the 

'  Mai.  i.  11. 


10  PKIMITIVE  LITURGIES. 

Gospel  which  Malachi  predicts,  and  concerning 
which  St.  Paul  asserts  his  own  priesthood,  just 
as  elsewhere  he  speaks  of  the  Christian  altar  ;  ■ 
and  (2)  the  auxiliary  and  dependent  Common 
Prayer  to  which  all  the  faithful  are  entitled 
daily  wherever  two  or  three  may  meet  together 
in  the  Master's  name. 

But  to  learn  how  ancient  is  this  divine  plan 
of  worship  let  us  take  another  step,  and  advance 
from  the  fundamental  truth  inscribed  on  Abel's 
altar  to  that  which  was  revealed  to  the  Father 
of  the  faithful,  and  which  was  made  more  and 
more  explicit,  age  after  age,  as  the  great  epoch 
of  the  Gospel  was  drawing  nigh.  In  the  Book 
of  Genesis  we  read  of  Melchizedek,  and  for  the 
first  time  we  meet  the  word  "priest."  This 
mysterious  personage  comes  before  Abraham  as 
"the  priest  of  the  Most  High  God;"  not  a 
priest,  but  the  priest.  St.  Paul  declares  that 
his  is  the  only  priesthood.  It  had  its  types  in 
the  Law  and  has  its  ministerial  representatives 
in  the  New  Covenant.  He  only  abides  forever, 
the  "  Priest  upon  His  throne."  His  commis- 
sioned servants,  ministering  in  His  Name,  rep- 
resent His  priesthood  to  all  believers  and  apply 
its  benefits  to  their  fellow-men.  All  Christians, 
in  their  divers  relations,  are  2 "  a  holy  and  a 

1  Heb.  viii.  10.  2  I,  Pet.  ii.  5-9. 


IMMMITIVK    [JTU&GI]  11 

royal  priesthood  to  offer  up  spiritual  sacrifices 
acceptable  to  God  by  Jesus  Christ."  But  over 
all,  lie  is  "the  Great  High  Priest/*  the 
true  Melchizedek '  who,  "  when  he  had  offered 
one  sacrifice  for  sins  forever,  sat  down  on  the 
right  hand  of  God." 

Now,  St.  Paul  argues  that  this  apparition 
was  vouchsafed  to  Abraham,  not  only  to  give 
the  Father  of  all  believers  clearer  ideas  of  the 
promised  Messiah  than  had  been  vouchsafed 
before,  but  to  put  upon  everlasting  record 
His  true  Priesthood ;  in  order  that  the  Mosaic 
priesthood  might  understand  their  position  as 
bare  types,  a  foreshadowing  symbol  for  a  tran- 
sient period,  interposed  till  He  should  come 
who  should  put  them  away  forever.  This  He 
was  to  do  by  offering  Himself  as  the  true 
Paschal  Lamb,  and  then  establishing  a  better 
priesthood  to  commemorate  His  sacrifice  on 
earth,  while  He  presents  it  in  heaven.  Thus, 
then,  the  bloody  sacrifices  of  the  Law  being 
put  away,  what  takes  their  place?  St.  Paul 
tells  us,  as  Malachi  had  predicted  it.  It  was  the 
oblation  which  Melchizedek  showed  to  Abra- 
ham when  "  he  brought  forth  bread  and  wine." 
St.  Paul,  therefore,  abrogates  the  Levitical 
priesthood,  and  asserts  the  superior  antiquity 

1  Heb.  x.  12. 


12  PKIMITIVE  LITURGIES. 

of  that  which  was  thus  foreshown  four  hundred 
years  before  Moses  established  his  typical  priests. 
Our  Lord  Himself  says  :  u  Your  father  Abra- 
ham rejoiced  to  see  my  day :  and  he  saw  it,  and 
was  glad." 

Thus  I  have  shown  that  the  Liturgy  of  the 
Gospel  was  asserted  and  provided  for  nearly  two 
thousand  years  before  the  Incarnation,  and  that 
the  Christian  Eucharist  was  "  the  sacrificial 
ministering  of  the  Gospel"  which  St.  Paul 
claimed ;  something  he  might  boast  of  as  better 
than  the  priesthood  which  the  Eternal  Priest 
abolished  forever  when  He  said,  "It  is  fin- 
ished."   He  had  seen  Melchizedek. 

Reflect  that  by  a  provision  of  the  Law  it  was 
foreordained  that  when  this  which  is  perfect 
should  come,  then  that  which  was  incomplete 
should  be  done  away.1  It  was  commanded 
that  the  sacrifices  of  the  Law  should  be  offered 
only  in  Jerusalem.  So  then,  when  the  Temple 
was  destroyed  in  that  very  generation,  there 
remained  only  the  divine  system  of  the  New 
Covenant.  Out  of  the  Law  had  appeared,  in 
consummate  beauty,  the  whole  system  which  it 
presignified.  It,  therefore,  was  decayed,2  and 
u  waxing  old,  was  ready  to  vanish  away." 

1  Compare  Heb.  vii.  19,  and  I.  Cor.  xiii.  10. 
9  Heb.  viii.  13. 


PRIMITIVE   LITURGIES.  13 

And  now  turn  to  tho  divino  provision  for  the 
daily  office  of  prayer  and  praise  with  reading  of 
the  Scriptures,  which  are  the  auxiliary  services 
preparatory  for  the  right  use  of  the  Holy 
Eucharist.  For  the  origin  of  these,  one  must 
go  back  to  the  "  Institutions  of  Samuel/'  a 
thousand  years  before  the  Advent.1  This 
prophet,  who  was  himself  a  very  striking  type 
of  Christ,  stands  forth  as  the  founder  of  a 
new  and  more  evangelical  series  of  those  holy 
prophets,  "  which  have  been  since  the  world 
began."  We  find  him  founding  "  schools  of 
the  prophets,"  and  instituting  a  new  order  of 
public  worship,  dependent  upon  the  service 
of  the  Temple,  but  bringing  home  to  every 
Israelite  in  the  villages  of  Palestine  opportu- 
nities of  evangelical  devotion,  and  of  hearing 
the  Law  and  the  Prophets  "read  in  course, 
with  prayer."  At  the  Passover  and  other 
festivals  they  went  up  to  the  Temple  for 
sacrifice.  In  the  synagogues  they  enjoyed  the 
offices  of  prayer  and  psalmody,  and  the  hearing 
of  the  Scriptures,  at  least  every  Sabbath  day. 

It  was  after  Samuel's  time  that  synagogues 
were  multiplied,  adorned  with  carved  work, 
and  with  goodly  cedars.  To  provide  for  the 
edification  of  the  people,'  in  these  "  houses  of 

1  Compare  I.  Sam.  x.  5,  10,  11,  and  xix.  24. 
■  Ps.  lxxiv.  6-9. 


14  PRIMITIVE  LITURGIES. 

prayer,"  we  find  Samuel  establishing  what  we 
now  call  divinity  schools.  In  these  colleges 
they  were  instructed  in  sacred  music  and  the 
chanting  of  such  hymns  as  those  of  Moses  and 
Miriam,  or  those  of  Deborah  and  Hannah. 
Thus  we  read  of  the  "hill  of  God,"1  where  a 
company  of  prophets  met  Saul  u  coming  down 
from  the  high  place  with  a  psaltery  "  and  other 
instruments,  and  prophesying,  apparently  by 
divine  inspiration.  Here  it  may  be  well  to 
note  the  earliest  reference  to  the  Psaltery,  from 
which  the  name  of  the  Psalter  comes  into  our 
devotions.  Again,3  after  many  years,  we  read  : 
"  Saul  sent  messengers  to  take  David  :  and  when 
they  saw  the  company  of  the  prophets  proph- 
esying, and  Samuel  standing  as  appointed 
over  them,  the  spirit  of  God  was  upon  the 
messengers  of  Saul."  Here  Samuel  appears  as 
a  leader,  overseer  or  bishop  among  the  prophets, 
presiding  over  their  solemnities;  and  this  was 
at  Naioth,  which,  the  learned  tell  us,  was  a 
collection  of  dwellings  for  the  schools,  such  as 
continued  to  the  times  of  Elisha  ;  although 
under  Solomon's  son,  Eehoboam,  we  read  of 
the  invaders  from  Egypt,  that  "they  burnt 
up  all  the  houses  of  God  in  the  land."8     The 


I.  Sam.  x.  5.  2 1.  Sam.  xix.  20. 

8  Ps.  lxxiv.  9. 


IKIMITIVE   LITURGIES.  15 

synagogue  worship  had,  therefore,  been  largely 
established,  and  in  these  synagogues,  as  in  the 
Temple  also,  the  Psalter  was  the  very  life  of  the 
public  worship  of  the  Most  High.  For  now 
ome  to  the  great  act  of  Samuel's  life  and 
mission.  He  anointed  David  not  only  to  be 
king,  in  the  room  of  Saul,  but  also  to  be  "  the 
sweet  psalmist  of  Israel."1  "  The  spirit  of  the 
Lord  came  upon  David  from  that  day  forward."3 
In  brief,  the  Psalter  was  created  by  his  inspired 
genius.  It  vertebrates  the  entire  worship  of 
the  Church  of  this  day.  And  so  our  Common 
Prayer  comes  to  us  from  the  prophet  Samuel. 
Thus  we  derive  that  miracle  of  devotional 
poetry,  which  for  nearly  three  thousand  years 
has  been  dear  to  all  believers,  in  all  lands ; 
which  was  sung  in  the  synagogues  of  the  He- 
brews, and  more  majestically  chanted  by  the 
singers  of  the  Temple  in  their  courses ;  which 
the  daughters  of  Jerusalem  could  not  sing  in  a 
strange  land,  when  they  sat  down  by  the  rivers 
of  Babylon  and  wept  to  remember  Zion ;  which 
our  Divine  Lord  so  often  referred  to  and  quoted, 
as  did  His  Apostles  afterwards ;  which  the 
Holy  Church  throughout  all  the  world,  in 
divers  tongues,  has  used  perpetually  since  their 
day  ;  which  has  consoled  the  saints  in  the  times 

1 II.  Sam.  xxiii.  1.  a  I.  Sam.  xvi.  13. 


16  PRIMITIVE  LITURGIES. 

of  persecution,  and  which  they  have  sung  at 
the  stake,  amid  flames  of  fire ;  which  has 
refreshed  millions  of  the  faithful  upon  their 
death-beds,  and  which  has  made  part  of  the 
offices  of  their  burial.  These  are  the  psalms 
which  the  early  Christians  intoned  as  they 
pushed  the  plowshare  through  the  furrows,  or 
with  which  they  solaced  their  daily  toil  at  the 
anvil  or  the  loom.  The  maiden  sung  the 
Psalter  as  she  twirled  the  thread  of  her  distaff ; 
and  not  less,  holy  men  rose  at  midnight  to  sing 
psalms,  as  it  were,  with  Paul  and  Silas  in  the 
stocks.  And,  in  our  own  time,  how  many 
among  us  who  have  grown  old  and  have  recited 
the  Psalter,  month  after  month,  from  the  days  of 
youth,  can  bear  witness  to  the  marvellous  adap- 
tation of  its  oracles  to  the  changing  conditions 
of  life;  to  prosperity  and  tribulation,  to  joy  and 
sorrow,  to  health  and  to  infirmity,  to  moments 
of  rapture  and  to  moments  which  but  for  its 
comfortable  words  would  darken  to  despair. 
It  is  true,  there  are  words  in  the  Psalter  which 
remind  us  of  God's  retributive  dealings  with 
those  who  rejected  the  Messiah ;  but  they  may 
be  profitably  used  by  all  who  would  not  become 
"as  a  man  that  heareth  not,  and  in  whose 
mouth  are  no  reproofs."1   With  words  from  the 

1  Ps.  xxxviii.  14. 


I'KIMITIVK  LITURGIES.  17 

Psalter  our  Divine  Lord  prayed  to  the  Father 
on  the  cross  ;  with  like  words  He  resigned  His 
spirit  as  He  gave  up  the  ghost;  and,  quoting 
the  same  Psalm  which  foretold  His  death,  He 
first  saluted  His  disciples  as  His  "brethren" 
when  He  rose  from  the  dead.  This  same 
Psalter  lends  its  imagery  to  the  words  of 
Jesus  :  "  I  am  the  Good  Shepherd ;"  and  again 
to  the  language  of  the  Apocalypse  :  u  He  shall 
feed  them,  and  shall  lead  them  unto  living 
fountains  of  waters."  There  seems  to  be  a 
reference  to  the  title  of  the  greatest  of  the  Pas- 
chal Psalms,  and  to  its  entire  prediction  of  the 
Atonement  and  Redemption,  when  our  Lord, 
among  His  last  words  to  the  Church,  ex- 
claimed :  "lam  the  root  and  the  offspring  of 
David,  and  the  bright  morning  star." 

II.  Such,  by  pre-arrangement  and  gradual 
introduction,  was  the  divine  plan  of  love  and 
mercy  for  supplying  the  infant  Church  with 
systematic  forms  of  worship,  from  the  moment 
of  Christ's  ascending  to  His  throne  and  send- 
ing forth  His  Vicar  Spirit  to  abide  with  her  for- 
ever. The  synagogue  worship — restored  under 
Ezra,  and  supplied  with  the  Psalter,  the  Law 
and  the  Prophets — was  also  enriched  with  other 
prayers  and  devotions.  Much  is  implied  in  the 
fact,  that  John  had  taught  his  disciples  how  to 
pray  in  accordance  with  the  new  revelations  of 


18  PRIMITIVE  LITURGIES. 

his  mission.  His  requirements  of  acts  of  peni- 
tence and  faith,  and  the  public  confession  of 
sins,  as  qualifications  for  his  baptism,  suggest 
this  inference.  And  when  the  disciples  asked 
the  Lord  for  further  instructions,  we  may  be- 
lieve that,  with  His  incomparable  prayer,  He 
gave  them  many  other  teachings,  which  the 
Spirit  afterward  brought  to  their  remembrance. 
His  own  sublime  summary  of  devotion  seems  to 
be  referred  to  as  the  very  corner-stone  of  this 
fabric  of  Common  Prayer,  when  the  Apostle 
speaks  of  the  Spirit,  "whereby  we  cry  Abba, 
Father."  '  The  responsive  Amen  is  familiarly 
mentioned  as  following  Eucharistic  praise.8  A 
French  author s  very  suggestively  imagines  that 
the  prophetic  gifts  which  St.  Paul  en- 
deavours to  subordinate  to  uses  of  public 
worship,  made  the  common  prayers  of  the 
primitive  believers  an  "office  of  the  Holy 
Ghost ; "  and  to  this  our  own  Matins  and 
Evensong  correspond,  in  the  abundant  use 
which  they  include  of  the  words  of  Inspiration; 
"  the  lively  oracles  "  of  God.  When,  after  the 
day  of  Pentecost,  Christian  doxologies  were 
added,  by  the  inspired  gifts  imparted  so  freely, 
even  to  laymen  and  godly  women  ;  when  the 

1  Rom.  viii.  15-17.  2 1.  Cor.  xiv.  16. 

3  Origines  du  Gulte,  par  L'Abbe  Duchesne,  Paris, 
1889. 


PRIMITIVE    LUTRGIES.  19 

Evangelical  Hymns,  preserved  by  St.  Luke, 
v  brought  into  use  ;  when  M  forms  of  sound 
words"  became  familiar — including,  we  may 
safely  suppose,  what  we  now  call  the  Creeds,  at 
least  in  their  elemental  forms — it  wanted  only 
what  came  so  soon,  the  writings  of  the  Evan- 
gelists and  Apostles,  to  supply  the  Common 
Prayer  of  Christians  in  all  the  fullness  requisite 
to  their  constant  assemblings.  "  With  one  ac- 
cord n  they  lifted  up  their  voices  in  their  con- 
gregations. And,  as  the  Apostles  immediately 
took  order  for  the  great  central  act  of  worship, 
we  see  that  everything  which  we  regard  as 
necessary  to  Divine  Service  came  into  existence, 
out  of  the  elements  of  the  Law — even  as  our 
Lord  Himself  came  forth  from  the  sepulchre  in 
His  Resurrection  from  the  Dead. 

It  is  written,  therefore,  of  the  Apostolic 
Church  at  the  very  beginning :  u  They  con- 
tinued stedfastly  in  the  Apostles'  doctrine  and 
fellowship,  in  the  breaking  of  Bread,  and  in  the 
Prayers." '  Observe  the  significance  of  these 
four  particulars.  The  Prayers,  the  Eucharistic 
Oblation,  the  Apostolic  fellowship,  and  the 
Apostolic  Creed,  arc  recognized  as  something 
definite,  organized,  understood,  received  and 
steadily  maintained  by  all.     Here  is  essentially 

1  Acts  ii.  42. 


20  PRIMITIVE   LITURGIES. 

the  Prayer  Book  in  its  original.  The  matured 
system  is  referred  to,  not  infrequently,  by  St. 
Paul,  who  "  ordained  *  one  system  "  in  all  the 
churches."  '  He  praises  those  who  u  held  fast 
the  traditions"  as  he  delivered  them; 3  he  com- 
mends a  like  stedfastness  with  respect  to  the 
"  form  of  sound  words,"  which  Timothy  had 
heard  from  the  Apostle  himself ; 8  and  he  says 
to  the  Thessalonians  :  "  We  command  you  in 
the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  ye 
withdraw  yourselves  from  every  brother  that 
walketh  disorderly,  and  not  after  the  tradition 
which  he  received  of  us."4  Even  what  we 
now  call  "  the  rubrical  system  "  is  here  implied, 
and  seems  more  especially  recognized  in  the 
words,  "  Let  all  things  be  done  decorously  and 
in  order : " 6  where  this  word  order  is  the  Greek 
taxis — of  which  the  root  idea  is  familiarized 
among  us  in  the  word  tactics,  whereby  artificial 
arrangement,  or  prescribed  method,  is  univer- 
sally understood. 

It  agrees  with  all  that  seems  here  implied, 
when  we  not  only  find  evidence,  that  the  Apos- 
tolic ordinances  were  delivered  with  unity  of 
plan  throughout  the  whole  Church  from  India 
to  Britain,  even  before  the  death  of  St.  John ; 

1  I.  Cor.  vii.  17.       a  Or  "  ordinances,"  I.  Cor.  vii.  2. 
8  II.  Tim.  1-13.        4 II.  Thess.  iii.  6. 
6 1.  Cor.  xiv.  40. 


PRIMITIVE   LITURGIES.  21 

but  that  the  Liturgies  which  have  come  down 
to  us  from  remote  antiquity,  are  marked  by 
uniformity  and  variety,  in  proportions  nearly 
equal.  And  here  we  use  the  word  Liturge  in 
its  strict  sense,  as  the  name  of  the  Eucharistic 
Service  ;  to  which  St.  Paul  seems  to  point, 
when  he  couples  his  claim  to  be  a  Liturgy  with 
the  assertion  of  his  Hierurgic,  or  priestly  minis- 
tration. The  ancient  Liturgies  bear  the  name 
of  Churches  founded  by  the  Apostles ;  or  of 
the  Apostles  themselves  who  are  supposed  to 
have  founded  them.  And  it  is  to  be  noted 
that  they  all  originated  in  the  East,  even  the 
Liturgy  of  Rome  bearing  marks  of  Greek  au- 
thorship. We  must  keep  in  mind,  however, 
that  we  have  no  very  ancient  manuscripts  of 
these  Liturgies — a  fact  for  which  it  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  account.  Yet  we  can  trace  their  essen- 
tial features  to  a  very  early  date  ;  and  nothing 
but  a  primitive  antiquity  can  account  for  their 
harmonies,  or  even  for  their  diversities.  It 
would  otherwise  be  hard  to  explain  the  truth, 
that  they  are  all  reducible  to  three  families  of 
ritual,  classified  by  their  family  features  and 
birth-marks.  (1)  We  have  the  great  Oriental 
family,  bearing  the  names  respectively  of  St. 
James  of  Jerusalem,  St.  Mark,  St.  Paul  and 
St.  Chrysostom.  The  two  last  named  are  so 
nearly  the  same  as  to  be  practically  one,  and 


22  m  PRIMITIVE  LITURGIES. 

they  are  in  use  at  this  day  in  Russia  and  else- 
where— disfigured,  it  is  true,  by  interpolations. 
To  them  may  be  added  the  Liturgy  of  Eastern 
Syria.  But  superlatively  beautiful,  scriptural 
and  rich  in  devotional  expression  is  the  Liturgy 
of  St.  James.  Its  incrustations  and  corruptions 
are  comparatively  slight,  and  may  be  easily  de- 
tected by  comparison  with  ancient  writings. 
(2)  The  Gallican  family  is  derived  from  Eph- 
esus,  and  is  supposed  to  represent  the  tradition 
of  St.  John.  The  originals  were  undoubtedly 
brought  to  Lyons  by  Pothinus ;  of  whom  we 
know  something  from  the  writings  of  Irenaeus, 
his  successor  in  the  bishopric.  With  this 
family,  the  early  Liturgies  of  Britain  were  near 
of  kin ;  for  the  Churches  of  the  Britons  and 
the  Gauls  were  closely  allied  from  the  begin- 
ning and  were  practically  one  down  to  the  time 
when  the  Saxons  invaded  the  British  isle.  (3) 
The  Roman  rite,  which  was  singularly  devoid 
of  Oriental  warmth,  included,  nevertheless, 
the  essential  characteristics  of  its  parentage. 
And,  as  improved  by  the  Patriarch  Gregory, 
in  the  sixth  century,  it  became,  in  time,  pre- 
dominant in  the  West ;  though  not  entirely  so 
in  France  and  Spain,  and  never  in  England. 
It  must  not  be  forgotten,  that  the  ancient 
Church  of  Britain  was  planted  by  the  disciples 
of  St.  Paul,  who  himself  had  preached  to  Britons 


PRIMITIVE   LITURGIES.  23 

while  they  were  captives  in  Rome.  And  this 
Church  is  the  first  that  appears  in  history  in  the 
form  of  nationalized  Christianity.  Separated,  by 
its  insularity,  from  frequent  contact  with  South- 
ern Europe,  it  was  forgotten  in  the  Roman 
capital,  and  Gregory  heard  of  its  existence  with 
surprise.  His  missionary,  Augustine,  asked 
him  what  he  should  do  with  those  original 
Christians  of  Britain  whose  liturgic  system 
differed,  in  so  many  particulars,  from  his 
own.  Gregory  was  not  a  pope,  for  he  abhorred 
the  very  thought  of  a  Universal  Bishop,  as  anti- 
Christian;  and  his  answer  is  in  entire  harmony 
with  his  character.  He  instructed  Augustine 
in  the  following  words  :  "  You  were  bred 
in  the  Roman  Church  and  know  its  custom. 
.  .  But  if  you  have  found  anything 
in  the  Gallican,  or  any  other  Church,  more 
acceptable  to  God,  carefully  make  choice  of  the 
same  and  teach  the  (Saxon)  Church  of  the  Eng- 
lish, which  is  new  in  the  Faith,  whatsoever 
you  may  gather  from  the  several  Churches. 
For  things  are  not  to  be  loved  for  the  sake 
of  places,  but  places  for  the  sake  of  good 
things."1 

1  The  Abbe*  Duchesne  (p.  94,  ut  supra)  is  so  amazed 
at  these  instructions,  that  he  thinks  they  must  be  a 
forgery,  "because   no  pope  could  have  written  such 


24  PRIMITIVE   LITURGIES. 

Now,  the  Liturgy  of  these  primitive  Britons 
was  full  of  the  Oriental  features  which  came  to 
them  from  Ephesus.  And  it  must  be  borne  in 
mind,  that,  with  some  differences  that  had 
been  gradually  introduced,  its  rites  and  usages 
were  observed  from  Cornwall  and  Wales,  north- 
ward to  Northumberland  and  even  to  Scotland, 
and  westward  to  Ireland.  It  is  now  common 
to  speak  of  this  wide-spread  communion  as  "  the 
Celtic  Church,"  and  of  its  rites  and  usages 
as  those  of  the  "  Celtic  Liturgy."  It  is  thus 
described  by  a  learned  writer  of  our  own  day  :l 
"  The  facts  present  to  our  view  a  vast  Celtic 
communion  ...  sending  its  missions 
among  Teutonic  tribes  on  the  Continent  and  to 
distant  isles  like  Iceland ;  Catholic  in  doctrine 
and  practice  .  .  .  with  a  long  roll  of  saints, 
every  name  and  note  of  which  is  either  that  of 
one  like  St.  Columbanus  taking  a  line  wholly 
independent  of  Rome,  or  like  Bishop  Colman, 
directly  in  collision  with  her ;  having  its  own 
Liturgy,  its  own  translation  of  the  Bible,  its 
own  mode  of  chanting,  its  own  monastic  rule, 
its  own  cycle  for  the  calculation  of  Easter,  and 

words."  Very  true  ;  he  was  not  a  pope,  and  the  words 
by  which  he  rejected  the  "  Universal  Bishopric,"  are 
much  less  like  a  pope. 

1  Liturgy  of  the  Celtic  Church,  by  F.  E.  Warren, 
B.  D„  Oxford,  1871. 


PRIMITIVE    LITURGIES.  25 

presenting  both  internal  and  external  evidences 
of  complete  autonomy. "  It  was*  on  account  of 
this  autonomy,  or  national  character,  that 
Rome,  as  she  herself  declined  from  her  Catholic 
character  and  created  her  schism  with  the 
Churches  of  the  East,  saw  fit  to  "ignore 
or  impugn"  the  superior  claims  of  the  Celtic 
Church  to  Catholicity  :  but  this,  because  sho 
forgot  the  maxims  of  Gregory,  and  the  great 
Canon  of  Catholicity  which  permits  diversity  of 
usages — so  long  as  everything  is  preserved  which 
not  only  "everywhere  and  by  all  the  Churches" 
has  been  accepted ;  but  which  they  have  ac- 
cepted always,  from  the  beginnings  of  Chris- 
tianity. 

The  Roman  Missal  was  improved  by  the  Pa- 
triarch Gregory,  and  it  came  into  England  in 
a  condition  well-suited  to  the  wants  of  the 
newly-converted  Saxons.  It  was  not  a  Mass 
Liturgy  as  that  word  is  now  understood — a 
liturgy,  that  is,  in  which  the  people  have  no 
share  and  are  not  bidden  to  Holy  Communion. 
There  was  Communion  in  both  kinds,  and  non- 
communicants  were  excluded.  The  heresy  of 
transubstantiation  had  not  been  invented,  and 
hence  the  host  was  not  lifted  up  to  be  adored. 
Unfortunately,  the  Saxon  dialect  was  regarded 
as  barbarism  ;  and  as  the  missionaries  of  Greg- 
ory could  only  celebrate  in  the  Latin  tongue, 


26  PRIMITIVE  LITURGIES. 

this  violation  of  the  Scriptural  injunction  led 
to  the  unhappy  departures  from  Scriptural 
truth  which  followed.  The  liturgical  prin- 
ciple perishes  when  the  priest  takes  it  all  to 
himself,  and  robs  the  laity  of  their  ability  and 
their  privilege  of  responding  an  intelligent  and 
fervent  Amen  to  his  "  giving  of  thanks." 

So  then,  there  were  in  the  British  Isle,  after 
Gregory's  mission  to  the  Saxons,  two  distinct 
Churches,  with  their  respective  Liturgies — the 
ancient  British  Church,  which  had  been  there 
from  the  Apostles'  times,  and  the  Church  of 
the  evangelized  Saxons,  who  had  driven  the 
Britons  out  of  the  southern  and  southeastern 
coasts. 

Gradually,  under  the  pressure  of  circum- 
stances, the  people  of  Britain  became  fused  into 
one  nation  and  one  Church.  In  a  word, 
Britain  became  "  England,"  and  the  stronger 
race  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  predominated.  The 
Norman  Conquest  introduced  the  next  great 
era  in  the  history  of  our  forefathers,  and  the 
greatest  liturgical  diversities. 

For  the  Normans  brought  into  England  those 
debased  and  heretical  ideas  which  had  been 
propagated  after  the  days  of  Charlemagne.  The 
schism  of  Nicholas  I.  was  the  source  of  all  these 
evils,  and  he  must  be  regarded  as  the  founder 
of  the  Papacy,  as  it  was  understood  in  West- 


PRiMiTivj:   i.rn  k<;ies.  27 

era  Europe  in  those  Mediaeval  Ages,  which  are 
justly  denominated  M  Dark  Ages."  Even  the 
most  bigoted  Ultramontane  authors  are  forced 
to  admit  the  awful  wickedness  which  over- 
whelmed the  See  of  Rome  in  the  ninth  and 
tenth  centuries,  when  the  Papacy  had  become 
established  by  means  of  the  fraudulent  De- 
cretals, and,  favoured  by  the  almost  universal 
ignorance  of  the  times,  was  able  to  extend  its 
abominations  over  "the  Roman  Empire"  of 
Charles  the  Great.  Of  those  popes  who  im- 
mediately succeeded  Nicholas,  even  Moehler 
exclaims — "  hell  hath  swallowed  them  up." ' 
But  hear  the  testimony  of  Genebrard,  Arch- 
bishop of  Aix,  who  used  these  words  :  "During 
a  hundred  and  fifty  years  about  fifty  popes 
have  fallen  away  from  the  virtues  of  their  pre- 
decessors, being  apostates,  or  apostatical  rather 
than  apostolical."9  It  was  just  when  the  Papal 
power  had  culminated  in  Hildebrand,  who  first 
commanded  the  name  of  "Pope"  to  be  ex- 
clusively ascribed  to  the  Roman  bishop,8  that 
the  Normans  broke  into  England  and  introduced 
mediaeval  doctrines  and  usages,  wholly  unscrip- 
tural  and  in  conflict  with  the  Catholic  Councils. 


1  (A.  D.  1537-97.) 

5  Littledale's  Plain  Reasons,  p.  209. 

*  Anciently  all  bishops  were  called  papa. 


28  PRIMITIVE  LITURGIES. 

Hildebrand  was  all  the  more  mischievous,  be- 
cause he  was  honest  and  in  his  way  a  reformer  ; 
but  his  errors  arose  from  his  supposition  that  the 
Decretals  were  genuine  records,  and  his  belief 
that  by  assorting  their  false  claims  in  the  most 
absolute  way,  he  could  improve  the  condition  of 
things  in  the  Latin  Churches. 

Never,  for  a  moment,  however,  did  the 
Church  of  England  lose  her  identity  by  absorp- 
tion with  the  established  Church  of  the  so-called 
"Holy  Eoman  Empire,"  which  Charlemagne 
had  set  up.  She  maintained  that  stubborn  inde- 
pendence of  spirit  which  the  Celtic  Church  had 
imparted  to  her.  By  usurpation,  persistently 
introduced,  and  not  less  persistently  resisted, 
the  pontiffs  domineered,  more  or  less,  for  five 
hundred  years,  over  the  Church  of  England; 
but  their  "  supremacy  "  was  never  for  a  moment 
acknowledged,  nor  was  it  ever  successfully 
enforced  upon  the  Anglican  or  the  Gallican 
Church.  How  few  understand  these  facts  or 
their  immense  significance ! 

These  remarks  are  made  necessary  if  we  would 
comprehend,  what  I  must  next  introduce,  the 
subject  of  the  variety  of  Liturgies  that  existed 
in  England  all  through  the  period  of  the  Papal 
ascendency.  The  Roman  Liturgy  was  never 
admitted  as  the  Liturgy  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land.    Turn  to  the  Preface  of  the  Book  of 


PRIMITIVE  LITURGIES.  29 

Common  Prayer,  when  it  first  appeared  in  1549, 
and  we  find  in  it  these  notable  words :  u  Here- 
tofore there  hath  been  great  diversity  in  laying 
and  singing  in  churches  within  this  realm, 
some  following  Salisbury  use,  some  Hereford 
use,  some  the  U6e  of  Bangor,  some  of  York,  and 
some  of  Lincoln  ;  now,  from  henceforth  all  the 
whole  realm  shall  have  but  one  use."  Thus  we 
owe  to  this  blessed  book,  not  only  the  creation 
of  uniformity  in  Anglican  worship,  but  its  dis- 
semination through  all  the  world,  among  all 
English-speaking  people,  as  a  bond  of  unity, 
such  as  no  other  people  in  the  world  enjoy. 

Of  these  various  Uses,  suffice  it  to  say  that 
u  Salisbury  Use  "  was  in  the  ascendant  down  to 
the  times  of  our  restorers — they  must  not  be 
confounded  with  mere  "  reformers  " — who  gath- 
ered out  of  it  much  wealth  of  material,  but  who, 
in  so  doing,  were  forced  to  remember  the  words 
of  Scripture,  "  Thou  shalt  be  as  my  mouth 
.  .  .  if  thou  take  forth  the  precious  from 
the  vile." 

And  most  conspicuously  were  these  two  ele- 
ments compounded  in  the  "Use  of  Saruin" — 
for  greatly  was  it  enriched  beyond  the  ' *  Roman 
Use  ;  "  and  yet  even  more  did  it  embody  the  cor- 
ruption and  the  novelties  of  the  Hildebrandine 
era,  as  they  multiplied  through  those  dark 
times  and  changed  the  whole  idea  of  the  Catholic 


30  PRIMITIVE  LITURGIES. 

Eucharist  into  that  of  the  ceremonial  Mass,  at 
which  nobody  but  the  priest  was  a  communi- 
cant, which  took  away  the  chalice  from  the 
people  when  they  were  permitted  to  receive  at 
all,  and  which  educated  them  to  receive  only 
once  in  the  year.  But,  in  all  this,  observe 
again,  the  overruling  Providence  of  God.  Had 
the  barren  Missal  of  Rome  predominated,  there 
would  have  been  little  of  the  precious  to  take 
forth  from  its  poor  material.  It  was  less  adul- 
terated than  the  Sarum  Use,  but  the  latter  was 
like  ore  that  yields  an  enormous  percentage  of 
gold,  when  tried  in  the  fire.  That  Use  was 
introduced  by  Bishop  Osmund,  in  less  than 
twenty  years  after  the  Norman  invasion;  and 
it  prevailed  because  of  its  "special  beauties, " 
in  spite  of  the  novelties  of  mediaeval  supersti- 
tion, and  the  strange  and  anti-Catholic  cere- 
monies whereby  it  gradually  overlaid,  and 
almost  smothered,  the  Scriptural  worship  of 
the  ancient  Churches.  Such  were  marketable 
Masses  for  souls  in  purgatory,  which  wholly 
deprived  the  sacrifice  of  the  "pure  oblation. " 
Its  terrible  fault  was  its  destructive  operation 
on  the  great  principle  of  Holy  Communion, 
and  its  crime  against  the  one  sacrifice  of  the 
Cross,  as  the  only  propitiatory  sacrifice  for 
sin. 

In  bringing  so  great  a  subject  to  a  conclusion, 


PRIMITIVE  LITURGIES.  31 

we  must  not  fail  to  note  those  important  spe- 
( ialtus  of  the  Eastern  Liturgies,  the  Oblation 
and  Invocation,  which,  by  the  inestimable  ser- 
1  of  Bishop  Seabury,  were  restored  to  our 
American  Use,  from  the  Scottish  Liturgy  of 
1604 ;  but  not  less  from  the  first  Anglican 
Prayer  Book  of  the  previous  century.  With- 
out anticipating  what  others  will  more  fully 
illustrate  for  your  edification,  in  the  chapters 
that  are  to  follow,  it  is  due  to  my  own  task  to 
remind  you  that  these  ennobling  usages  come 
to  us  with  the  seal  of  an  antiquity  which  mounts 
up  to  the  age  nearest  to  that  of  the  Apostles. 
St.  Cyril,  of  Jerusalem,  regards  them  as  origi- 
nating in  that  Maternal  See  of  the  whole 
Church,  in  the  days  of  St.  James.  That  these 
features  give  special  honour  to  the  prophecy  of 
Malachi  which  I  have  compared  with  the  cor- 
responding text  from  St.  Paul,  must  be  obvi- 
ous ;  but  that  is  a  small  matter  compared  with 
the  tribute  they  pay  to  the  whole  spirit  of  Scrip- 
ture, as  it  bears  on  the  Atonement  of  Christ, 
His  vicarious  sacrifice,  His  everlasting  priest- 
hood, and  His  one  oblation  of  Himself,  once 
offered,  to  take  away  the  sins  of  the  world. 
No  longer  bleed  the  turtle-doves,  or  the  young 
pigeons ;  no  more  the  lambs  of  the  Passover 
supply  the  typical  blood  of  sprinkling.  The 
Lamb  of  God  is  come,  and  has  made  all  things 


32  PEIMITIVE   LITURGIES. 

new.  Nor  is  it  less  important,  possibly,  to  note 
that  in  the  Invocation  we  glorify  the  Holy  Spirit 
for  His  efficient  work  and  His  essential  opera- 
tion in  the  Sacraments.  Let  me,  also,  remind 
you  of  that  feature  of  the  Eucharist  which 
raises  into  rapture  the  grand  idea  of  the  com- 
munion of  saints,  and  which  is  found  in  all  the 
Liturgies  of  Apostolic  Christendom,  from  the 
beginning  until  now.  I  speak  of  the  Prefaces 
and  the  Tersanctus :  "  Therefore  with  Angels 
and  Archangels,  and  with  all  the  company 
of  heaven,"  etc.  Of  this  many  ritual  writers 
have  ventured  to  say,  that  it  has  never  been 
unheard  whenever,  in  a  true  Church"  the  Eu- 
charist has  been  celebrated.  On  the  great  festi- 
vals of  Christmas,  Easter,  and  Pentecost,  when 
I  stand  at  the  altar  and  recite  these  heavenly 
formulas,  I  seem,  like  the  Apostle,  to  be  caught 
up  into  Paradise,  and  to  hear,  among  saints 
made  perfect,  "  unspeakable  words  "  which  cor- 
respond with  ours.  Surely,  it  is  something 
that  must  minister  to  the  soul  the  most  elevat- 
ing and  the  purest  emotions — the  thought  of 
those,  the  millions  gone  before  us,  "  the  great 
cloud  of  witnesses,"  whose  lives  and  deaths  have 
been  uplifted  to  God  by  these  same  devotions, 
by  anthems  and  alleluias  that  anticipate  the 
joys  of  heaven.  "Who  is  sufficient  for  these 
things  ?  *    Who  is  worthy  to  minister  before 


PRIMITIVE  LITURGIE8.  33 

tho  Lord  in  Buch  a  heaven  brought  down  to 
earth  ?  Blessed  be  He,  who,  unworthy  as  we 
are,  "  makes  us  able  ministers  of  the  New 
Covenant, "  by  the  gifts  of  His  anointing,  so 
that  we  offer  "acceptable  sacrifices "  God- 
ward  ;  while  manward  wo  bear  to  our  breth- 
ren the  food  of  angels,  and  the  cup  of  blessing 
which  is  filled  from  the  heart  of  Jesus — 
from  the  water  and  tho  blood  of  His  wounded 
side. 

Welcome,  then,  anew,  that  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  made  more  precious  than  ever,  which 
comes  from  the  Council ;  from  our  apostles, 
presbyters,  and  brethren,  convened  under  tho 
Invocation  of  the  Spirit,  and  remembered  in 
the  supplications  of  all  our  churches.  Reflect 
when  you  devoutly  unfold  its  pages,  like  the 
Bride  in  the  Canticles,  you  open  to  the  be- 
liever "  that  spring  shut  up,  that  fountain 
sealed."  You  offer  the  fragrance,  also,  of 
ardent  love,  the  smell  of  "spikenard  and  all 
trees  of  frankincense  and  myrrh  and  all  tho 
chief  spices ;  *  you  draw  from  the  "  fountain  of 
gardens ;"  you  drink  from  a  "well  of  living 
waters  and  streams  from  Lebanon. " 

For  the  Prayer  Book  is  not  only  a  poem,  or 
an  oratorio  from  beginning  to  end,  a  choral- 
song,  and  a  perpetual  feast;  it  is  not  merely 
a  well  undefiled,  of  our  mother-tongue,  and, 
8 


34  PRIMITIVE  LITURGIES. 

hardly  excepting  the  English  Bible,  the  first 
standard  and  classic  of  the  language.  To  the 
anointed  eye  and  ear  it  is  infinitely  more.  Its 
"  streams  from  Lebanon" are  nothing  less  than 
the  "fresh  springs"  that  gush  from  Holy  Writ, 
as  from  the  Smitten  Rock  of  Moses ;  from  its 
Patriarchs  and  Prophets,  its  sweet  singers,  its 
Apostles  and  Evangelists.  Those  "gardens" 
and  fountains  of  chaste  delights,  are,  as  you 
have  been  reminded,  the  litanies  and  hymns  of 
all  Saints ;  the  Liturgies  of  the  martyrs  and 
confessors  who  have  handed  down  to  us  the 
Holy  Scriptures  and  the  gifts  that  come  by  the 
Laying-on  of  hands. 

Oh  !  infinite  privilege  of  the  devout  worship- 
per, who,  when  he  uses  this  Book,  brings  him- 
self into  spiritual  communion  with  those  faithful 
ones  of  old  times,  with  every  land  and  speech, 
with  millions  of  his  brethren  praying  with  him, 
in  all  parts  of  the  world.  "Look  upon  the 
city  of  our  solemnities ;  thine  eyes  shall  see 
a  quiet  habitation."  In  crowded  cities  I  often 
turn  aside  from  the  noisy  thoroughfare,  where 
some  consecrated  church  stands  open  all  the 
day  and  invites  me  to  a  moment  of  private 
prayer,  like  that  of  the  publican  in  the  Temple. 
I  exclaim,  "  How  awful  is  this  place ;  none 
other  than  the  gate  of  Heaven  ! "  I  see  the 
altar  where  faithful    priests    "minister  unto 


PRIMITIVE  LITURGIES.  35 

the  Lord  *  as  of  old  in  Antioch,1  and  the  sacred 
pale  where  the  family  of  Christ  kneel  at  tho 
Holy  Table  to  gather  immortality"  from  the 
broken  Bread  and  the  chalice  of  the  true  Vine. 
There,  too,  is  the  "Volume  of  the  Book"  en- 
throned upon  the  lectern ;  the  Everlasting 
Gospel  borne,  as  on  eagle's  wings,  to  every 
kindred,  and  nation,  and  tongue ;  "  whose 
leaves  are  for  the  healing  of  the  nations." "  And 
there,  in  "  the  seat  of  the  elders,"  and  every- 
where, ready  for  the  hands  of  worshippers,  I 
see  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer ;  that  treasure 
of  "gold,  frankincense  and  myrrh,"  which  we 
still  open  daily  before  the  Lord,  like  the  wise 
men  who  followed  the  Star  of  Bethlehem — those 
first  fruits  of  the  Gentiles  who  worshipped  the 
Holy  Child. 

God  send  the  day  when  in  the  unity  of  a 
restored  Christendom,  "one  Lord,  one  Faith, 
one  Baptism,"  we  shall  all  be  partakers  of  that 
"  one  Bread,"  and  once  more  lift  up  our  voices 
"  with  one  accord,"  albeit  with  many  tongues, 
in  that  incomparable  language  of  the  Creed  : 
"  I  look  for  the  Resurrection  of  the  dead  :  and 
the  Life  of  the  world  to  come." 

>  Acts  xiii.  1.        "  St.  John  vi.  53-60.       '  Rev.  xxii.  2. 


THE  KEFOEMATION  PKAYER 
BOOKS. 


THE  REFORMATION  PRAYER 
BOOKS. 

The  line  of  thought  which  will  guide  me  in 
discussing  the  subjects  of  precomposed  prayers 
in  general,  and  the  Reformation  Prayer  Books 
in  particular,  is  admirably  laid  down  in  the 
following  words  of  the  Acts  of  the  holy 
Apostles  ;  Acts  ii.  42 : 

'.'  And  they  continued  stedfastly  in  the 
apostles'  doctrine  and  fellowship,  and  in 
breaking  of  bread,  and  in  prayers. " 

This  description  is  given  of  the  first  believers 
by  the  Holy  Ghost.  This  description  supplies 
the  criteria  which  accredit  all  believers,  in 
every  generation  and  in  every  age,  who  can 
justly  lay  claim  to  full  communion  with  the 
company  of  the  faithful,  the  Body  of  Christ, 
the  One  Holy  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Church. 

The  tests  are  few  ;  only  five  in  number. 

First.   Under  Apostolic  government. 

Second.  Holding  "  the  faith  once  delivered 
unto  the  saints, "  without  addition  or  de- 
pravation.    The  Apostles'  Doctrine. 

Third.     In  official    association,    in    public 


40        THE  REFORMATION  PRAYER  BOOKS. 

worship  and  spiritual  life  and  conduct,  with 
the  Apostles  or  their  representatives.  Apos- 
tolic Fellowship. 

Fourth.  In  scrupulous  attendance  upon, 
and  reception  of,  the  Blessed  Eucharist  as 
administered  under  the  authority  of  the 
Apostles.     Apostolical  Breaking  of  the  Bread. 

Fifth.  And  in  faithful  participation  in  the 
public  worship  of  the  churches,  as  directed  and 
guided  by  the  forms  prepared  and  enjoined  by 
the  Apostles.     Apostolic  Prayers. 

These  tests,  or  criteria,  are  very  simple  in 
character.  The  Apostolical  ministry  is  an 
historical  fact  as  fully  and  strongly  confirmed 
by  evidence  as  any  fact  in  human  experience. 
It  involves,  as  embodying  the  gift  of  official 
spiritual  life  for  all  time  to  come,  the  prin- 
ciple of  succession;  since,  so  far  as  we  know, 
all  life  in  nature  and  in  grace  is  continued  in 
this  way.  The  seed  which  we  hold  in  our 
hand  to-day  is  the  product  of  last  year's 
planting,  and  so  we  go  back  step  by  step, 
through  seeds  innumerable,  to  the  gracious 
hand  of  the  Great  Parent  of  Life  in  the 
creation.  You  and  I  represent  parents  two 
in  number,  and  they  in  turn  each  bring  two 
into  view,,  and  thus  in  succession  we  traverse 
the  centuries  until  we  come  to  those  whom 
God  made  as  the  crowning  act  of  creation. 


THE   REFORMATION   PRAYER  BOOKS.       41 

Tho  same  principle  perpetuates  government 
of  whatever  kind,  while  it  lasts,  in  tho  succes- 
sion of  its  chief  officer,  holding  and  handing 
on  tho  supremo  office  which  embodies  tho 
gift  of  national  life.  This  principle,  so  famil- 
iar— as  meeting  us  everywhere  in  the  field, 
in  the  home,  and  in  the  state — is  appropriated 
by  Almighty  God  in  perpetuating  His  Church. 
The  Apostles  and  their  successors,  immediately 
under  Christ  as  their  head,  bring  the  gifts  of 
grace  to  men,  in  an  official  ministry. 

But  as  the  treasure  is  so  precious,  as  tho 
gifts  are  of  such  transcendent  importance, 
God  guards  their  transmission  with  especial 
care.  He  overrules  His  Church  to  arrange 
that  the  parentage  in  the  sacred  ministry  must 
be  more  than  in  natural  descent.  An  earthly 
son  counts  two  parents,  a  Bishop  in  the  Church 
counts  at  least  three.  The  security  thus 
provided  is  complete.  Humanly  speaking, 
it  is  impossible  that  in  such  a  succession  there 
should  be  a  failure. 

The  Apostolical  government  has  been  over- 
thrown by  Rome  in  an  act  of  revolution. 
She  put  down  and  set  aside  the  government 
of  the  Apostles  as  a  corporation,  and  substi- 
tuted the  rule  of  one  Apostle  and  his  alleged 
successors,  the  Popes,  as  a  monarchy. 

The  Apostolical  government  since  tho  six- 


42        THE   REFORMATION   PRAYER  BOOKS. 

teenth  century  has  been  rejected  by  many 
who  name  the  name  of  Christ,  and  they  are  liv- 
ing under  systems  of  polity  of  their  own  inven- 
tion. The  Apostles,  not  one,  but  all,  ruled  the 
one  Holy  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Church  of 
Christ.  The  test  is  simple,  and  we  challenge  its 
application  to  ourselves. 

We  have  brought  this  fundamental  truth 
into  view  and  emphasized  it  thus,  because  this 
test,  "  the  Apostles  " — the  plural,  not  one,  nor 
none,  tut  all — this  test  gives  validity  and  value 
to  all  the  others  :  Doctrine,  Fellowship,  the 
Breaking  of  the  Bread,  and  the  Prayers.  These 
are  all  the  possession,  so  to  speak,  of  the 
Apostles.  We  may  read  the  passage  quoted 
from  Acts,  to  bring  out  its  full  meaning  in 
this  regard,  as  follows :  "  They  continued 
stedfastly  in  (1)  the  Apostles'  Doctrine,  and 
(2)  the  Apostles'  Fellowship,  and  (3)  the 
Apostles'  Breaking  of  the  Bread,  and  (4)  the 
Apostles'  Prayers." 

These  features  of  the  Gospel  dispensation, 
the  Kingdom  of  Christ — or,  as  we  would  say, 
of  the  Church — were  all  placed  by  the  Divine 
Head  under  the  government  of  the  Apostles. 
And  to  qualify  them  to  take  the  supervis- 
ion and  settle  forever  these  necessary  things, 
they  were  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  they 
were  specially  enlightened,  strengthened  and 


THE   REFORMATION   PRAYER  BOOKS.        43 

guarded,  bo  that  they  could  act,  and  teach, 
and  formulate  and  establish  what  was  neces- 
sary, without  the  possibility  of  mistake.  They, 
the  Apostles,  were,  for  the  purpose  of  prescrib- 
ing the  necessary  things  upon  which  the 
divine  life  of  the  Church  depends  for  its 
continuance  and  perpetuation,  infallible.  The 
Holy  Ghost  made  and  kept  them  so.  And  in 
recognition  of  this  fundamental  truth,  the 
appeal  of  the  faithful,  when  they  have  felt 
themselves  oppressed  with  tyranny  or  dis- 
tressed by  false  teaching,  has  always  been  to 
the  undivided  and  primitive  Church — and  ulti- 
mately to  the  Word  of  God,  as  interpreted  by 
those  in  the  first  age  who  continued  sted- 
fastly  in  the  Apostles'  doctrine  and  fellowship, 
and  in  breaking  of  bread,  and  in  prayers. 

Committed  then  to  the  Apostles'  jurisdiction 
by  their  Divine  Master  were  doctrine,  practice, 
sacraments  and  worship.  And  of  these  they 
took  charge,  and  gave  us  in  substance  what  we 
know  as  the  Apostles'  Creed ;  the  communion 
of  the  faithful  in  religious  life  and  association  ; 
the  celebration  of  the  Blessed  Eucharist,  and 
the  Liturgy — which  voices  the  celebration — 
and  allied  offices  and  prayers.  These  are  their 
gifts  under  Christ  to  us ;  and  the  Holy  Spirit 
puts  upon  these  gifts  His  imprint,  and  stamps 
them  as   "  Apostolical."     Living  men,  from 


44        THE  REFORMATION  PRAYER  BOOKS. 

generation  to  generation  and  from  age  to  age, 
hand  those  gifts  on  and  down  to  ns.  They  are 
an  historical  legacy — just  as  our  life  is  a  bequest 
from  the  past  flowing  down  into  us  from  our 
ancestors.  These  gifts  are  just  as  fresh  and 
precious  now  as  they  were  when  the  Apostles 
first  conveyed  them  to  men,  even  as  our  natural 
life  now  abiding  in  us  is  essentially  what  it 
was  when  it  started  on  its  career  from  Adam. 

Our  assigned  duty  is  to  discuss  within  cer- 
tain limits  of  time,  say  between  A.D.  1547  and 
1662,  the  fortunes  and  vicissitudes  of  the 
Apostolic  Prayers  in  our  Anglican  Commun- 
ion. 

My  venerable  predecessor  in  this  course  has 
told  you  the  story  of  the  Primitive  Liturgies, 
flowing  like  the  river  of  Paradise  from  one 
fountain  in  fourfold  channels,  and  making 
glad  the  City  of  God. 

It  is  my  privilege  to  take  up  the  narrative 
where  he  dropped  the  thread,  and  follow  the 
fortunes  of  this  divine  gift,  the  Apostolic 
Prayers,  through  a  period  of  little  more  than 
a  century.  The  extremes  of  our  survey  are 
the  accession  of  Edward  VI.,  in  1547,  and  the 
first  years  of  the  reign  of  Charles  II.,  in  1662. 

The  interval  covers  five  complete  reigns  of 
kings  and  queens,  the  rebellion  under  Oliver 
Cromwell,  and  the  beginning  of  a  sixth  reign, 


THE  REFORMATION   PRAYER  BOOKS.       45 

that  of  Charles  II.  Tho  times  were  restless,  un- 
settled, full  of  change.  All  things  seemed  liko 
the  troubled  sea  tossed  to  and  fro.  In  Church 
and  State,  in  manners  and  customs,  at  homo 
and  abroad,  it  was  the  same.  The  rejection  of 
Papal  domination  in  the  reigns  of  Henry  VIII. 
and  Edward  VI.;  the  return  to  it  again  in 
that  of  Mary ;  its  rejection  for  a  second  time 
and  finally  when  Elizabeth  came  to  the  throno 
in  1558 ;  and  then  the  repudiation  of  historic 
Christianity  in  the  days  of  tho  Commonwealth 
— mark  changes,  not  a  few,  in  religion.  In 
civil  affairs,  the  transition  from  the  absolute 
monarchy  of  Henry  VIII.  to  constitutional  lib- 
erty, secured  by  the  Bill  of  Eights  in  1688,  was 
characterized  by  many  and  conflicting  vicissi- 
tudes. The  oppression  of  the  Tudors  was 
scarcely  as  intolerable  as  the  selfish  greed  and 
cruelty  of  tho  factions  who  ruled  the  land 
under  the  boy  King  from  1547  to  1553 ;  and 
the  tyranny  of  the  Stuarts  was  less  odious  than 
the  canting  hypocrisy  of  the  Protector  and 
his  followers.  Social  and  domestic  life  in  these 
hundred  years  moved  from  old  surround- 
ings to  new.  The  mediaeval  features  which 
marked  the  home,  the  citizen,  the  soldier  when 
the  last  Henry  died,  were  all  gone  when  the 
Savoy  Conference  gave  us  the  last  revision  of 
the  English  Prayer  Book  in  1662. 


46        THE  REFORMATION  PRAYER  BOOKS. 

In  such  an  age  of  changes  what  are  we  to 
expect,  or  rather  what  are  we  to  dread  will 
take  place  in  the  Church  of  God  ?  There  are 
elements  in  her  which  must  remain  unaltered 
— if  not,  she  ceases  to  exist.  And  we  may  well 
tremble  for  her  safety,  when  we  see  the  fabric 
of  ecclesiastical  government  shaken  to  its 
foundations,  and  transitions  rapid  and  start- 
ling from  Roman  to  Reformed,  and  back  again 
to  Roman,  and  then  reverting  to  Reformed 
once  more  to  pass  beyond  the  metes  and 
bounds  of  Catholicity  into  individualism  and 
negation — we  may  well  tremble  for  the 
Church's  safety,  nay  for  her  very  existence,  un- 
der such  circumstances.  She  must  preserve 
her  polity,  her  faith,  her  loyal  submission  to 
authority,  her  sacraments  and  her  prayers. 
Can  she  do  this  when  such  vicissitudes  pass 
over  the  land  ?  We  answer  she  can,  and  she 
did ;  and  the  way  in  which  this  came  about, 
guided  by  the  protecting  care  of  God,  we 
proceed  to  show.  On  the  preservation  of  the 
polity  of  the  Church  depended  absolutely  the 
preservation  of  all  other  necessary  things, 
which  are  sheltered   by  that  polity. 

The  English  episcopate  in  the  line  of  Can- 
terbury knew  no  lapse  during  this  unsettled 
period  of  transition  and  change.  Cranmer 
succeeded  Warham,  and  Pole,  Cranmer,  and 


THE   REFORMATION    PRAYER  BOOKS.        47 

Parker,  Polo ;  and  then  the  succession  follows 
without  a  break  to  our  own  Archbishop  Benson 
of  to-day.  There  was  no  interruption,  and 
the  Apostolic  government  continued  through 
all  the  chances  and  changes  of  the  eventful 
century  and  a  quarter,  during  which  the 
Prayer  Book  of  our  Mother  Church  was  in 
the  process  of  assuming  its  present  form. 

If  the  suggestion  arises  in  your  minds,  that 
among  the  contingencies  which  might  have 
occurred,  was  the  adoption  of  extempore 
prayers,  dismiss  it  at  once  and  forever.  Such 
a  thing  as  extempore  prayer  in  public  worship 
is  absolutely  unknown  to  the  historic  Church 
of  God.  It  is  irreconcilable  with  the  test 
of  primitive  discipleship,  "  continuing  stead- 
fastly in  the  Apostles'  prayers."  For  it  is  not 
possible  to  continue  in  extempore  prayer. 
The  sound  dies  upon  the  ear,  and  the  words 
are  no  more,  except  as  a  memory.  And  every 
repetition  of  extempore  prayers  on  a  fresh 
occasion  of  worship  would  only  increase  the 
difficulties,  by  confusing  the  impression  with 
variations  of  the  forms,  and  additions  to  the 
amount  of  matter. 

The  essential  idea  of  "  extempore "  is,  that 
it  is  fresh  and  new  at  the  moment  and  springs 
spontaneously  from  the  occasion.  So  that  as 
time  ran  on,  the  Apostles'  prayers— on  the 


48        THE  REFORMATION  PRAYER  BOOKS. 

assumption  that  they  were  extempore — would 
accumulate  and  tax  the  memory  of  any  one 
to  recall  them ;  and  if  he  did,  and  continued 
stedfastly  in  them  by  using  them,  he  would 
cease  to  follow  the  example  of  the  Apostles, 
since  he  would  reverse  their  practice,  by  recit- 
ing precomposed  forms  of  prayer,  while  they 
poured  forth  their  prayers  without  book  or 
the  aid  of  memory.  It  is  impossible  to  con- 
tinue stedfastly,  we  say,  in  extempore  prayers. 
Prayers  must  be  precomposed  and  be  set  down 
in  some  permanent  form,  for  the  use  of  those 
who  are  to  continue  in  them. 

And  again,  extempore  prayer  in  public  under 
the  condition  which  our  Lord  prescribes — that 
"two  or  three "  as  a  minimum  must  agree 
as  touching  what  they  ask — is  absolutely  ex- 
cluded from  the  Church,  unless  the  worship- 
pers surrender  themselves  entirely  into  the 
hands  of  him  who  offers  prayers.  For,  con- 
sider, in  extempore  prayer,  if  it  be  really  ex- 
tempore, the  hearer  cannot  know  what  the 
speaker  is  about  to  say.  Hence  if  he  truly 
prays  he  must  accept  without  reserve  what  is 
offered  up  to  God  by  another,  as  his  own. 
Prayer  touches  the  deepest  and  most  sacred 
things  of  our  hearts;  it  covers  the  field  of 
conscience,  and  gathers  and  presents  to  God 
the  needs  and  cravings  and  fears  of  our  moral 


THE    REFORMATION    PBA.YBB   BOOKS.        49 

and  spiritual  nature.  How  can  we  bo  sure 
that  another  and  a  stranger  cau  know  us  as 
we  know  ourselves,  and  rightly  represent  us  to 
the  ear  of  God  ?  We  cannot,  and  hence  we 
must  listen  and  judge  of  what  wo  hear,  before 
we  pray.  But  this  is  practically  impossible. 
No  two  states  of  mind  are  more  diverse  than 
the  critical  and  the  devotional.  In  the  former 
we  are  on  the  bench  of  the  judge,  we  are 
weighing  and  considering,  separating  and  de- 
ciding ;  in  the  latter  we  are  on  our  knees  as 
penitents  and  petitioners,  the  mind  is  in  sub- 
jection to  the  spirit.  As  critics  the  mind 
rules  ;  as  devotees  the  spirit.  We  cannot,  if 
we  would,  keep  passing — as  sentence  after 
sentence  falls  upon  our  ears — from  the  critic's 
stool,  if  we  approve,  to  our  knees  in  devotion, 
and  then  in  an  instant  back  again  as  critics, 
to  the  seat  of  judgment.  Such  rapid  and 
constant  transitions  from  opposite  poles  of 
personal  condition  are  impossible  for  any 
man.  If  it  bo  urged  in  reply,  "  Oh !  we 
know  beforehand  what  our  leader  in  devotion 
will  offer  in  prayer  ; n  then  the  answer  is 
immediate — prayer  in  that  case  ceases  to  bo 
extempore.  And  if  we  must  have  precomposod 
forms,  the  Apostles'  prayers  are  better.  The 
substance  must  be  better,  and  the  form  as  well. 
As  to  the  substance,  there  i3  no  need  of  change 
4 


50        THE   REFORMATION   PRAYER  BOOKS. 

or  variation  except  within  very  narrow  limits ; 
and  these  exigencies  can  easily  be  provided  for, 
and  are  in  all  liturgies.  The  deep  things  of 
man's  nature,  the  necessities  of  body  and  soul, 
are  ever  the  same  ;  they  alter  not  from  age  to 
age.  And  hence  the  language  of  prayer  is  uni- 
versal for  all  time  and  all  men.  God  teaches 
us  how  to  pray — directly  in  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  and  indirectly  in  the  primitive  liturgies 
through  the  Apostles  ;  and  we  shall  do  well  if 
we  continue  stedfastly  in  their  prayers.  The 
form  is  better,  since  devotion  has  its  technical 
language  as  well  as  science,  and  the  original 
mould  in  which  the  form  of  prayer  and  praise 
is  cast  was  prepared  by  the  hand  of  God. 
Extempore  prayer,  therefore,  in  public,  in 
the  Church  of  Christ,  is  an  incongruity  so 
great,  that  it  is  not  to  be  reckoned  as  a  possi- 
bility that  can  happen,  by  those  who  remem- 
ber what  our  Lord  has  said,  and  what  His 
Apostles,  as  guided  by  the  Blessed  Spirit,  have 
taught.  The  continuity  of  the  Church,  under 
the  government  of  the  Apostles  and  their  suc- 
cessors in  office,  runs  along  the  lines  of  faith, 
morals,  sacraments  and  worship.  The  prayers 
form  one  of  the  strands  which  bind  and  hold 
the  Church  as  one  and  identical  from  the  day 
of  Pentecost  to  the  present  hour,  and  every- 
where throughout  the  world. 


THE    REFORMATION    PRATER   BOOKS.        51 

In  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  (1509-1547) 
when  our  survey  begins,  the  English  Church 
was  still  in  her  mediaeval  condition.  In  her 
ecclesiastical  relations  she  was  a  national 
Church  in  association  with  other  national 
churches  of  the  West  subject  to  the  Patriarch 
of  Rome. 

Her  insular  position  and  distance  from  the 
centre  of  power  had  helped  her  sovereigns  and 
people  to  assert  and  keep  alive  their  independ- 
ence to  a  degree  that  was  elsewhere  unknown, 
and  prepared  the  way  when  occasion  offered  to 
lead  them  to  break  absolutely  from  the  obedi- 
ence of  the  Pope. 

This  occasion  occurred  when  Henry  was 
bent  upon  securing  his  divorce  from  his  wife 
Katharine  of  Aragon.  The  Pope  was  person- 
ally ready  to  comply  with  Henry's  wishes  as  to 
divorce,  but  he  was  coerced  into  refusal  by 
Katharine's  mighty  nephew,  the  Emperor 
Charles  V.  of  Germany.  The  English  King, 
a  thoroughly  bad  man,  would  not  brook  delay 
or  endure  contradiction  ;  and  so  he  led  the 
estates  of  the  realm  to  do  what  they  were 
educated  and  ready  to  do — declare  themselves 
as  a  national  Church,  free. 

The  pivot  on  which  the  English  Reforma- 
tion turned  was  the  assertion  of  the  principle  of 
national  independence  in  ecclesiastical  juris- 


52        THE   REFORMATION  PRAYER  BOOKS. 

diction  and  administration.  The  question 
proposed  to  the  two  Convocations  of  Canter- 
bury and  York — the  legislative  and  governing 
body  of  the  English  Church — was  this,  "Hath 
the  Bishop  of  Rome  by  divine  right  (jure 
divino)  any  more  jurisdiction  within  this  realm 
of  England  than  any  other  foreign  Bishop?" 
To  this  inquiry,  after  deliberation,  the  Convoca- 
tions answered,  with  scarcely  a  dissenting  voice, 
"No."  The  principle  here  asserted  is  univer- 
sally true,  and  applies  with  equal  force  to  every 
national  Church,  which  either  has  been,  or  is, 
or  may  be  subjected  to  the,  usurpation  and 
tyranny  of  some  exterior  power.  This  is  the 
great  principle  of  the  English  Reformation, 
the  principle  which  explains  it  and  justifies  it. 
It  happened  to  be  applied  and  successfully 
asserted  in  the  reign  of  a  selfish,  sensual,  bad 
King.  His  lust  and  brutality  were  the  accident 
which  prompted  him,  and  spurred  him  on  to 
suggest  and  sanction  the  measures  which  set 
his  Kingdom  ecclesiastically  free  from  Rome. 
Without  this  liberation  from  the  thraldom  of 
the  Pope,  reformation  in  any  true  sense  would 
have  been  impossible.  Henry  was  the  instru- 
ment in  the  hands  of  Divine  Providence,  to 
enable  the  English  people,  as  a  nation,  to  pro- 
claim their  autonomy  in  ecclesiastical  affairs, 
and   secure  this  independence    by  canonical 


THE   REFORMATION   PRAYER  BOOKS.        53 

enactment  in  Convocation,  and  legal  statute  in 
Parliament,  with  the  consent  of  the  Crown. 
The  wrath  of  man  was  thus  overruled  to  praise 
God. 

The  course  of  events  in  Henry's  reign 
simply  marks  the  process  of  legislation,  which 
severed  the  connection,  that  was  the  growth  of 
centuries,  uniting  England  in  a  net-work  of 
many  strands  with  the  See  of  Rome.  Thus 
far,  and  thus  far  ouly,  the  Reformation 
advanced  in  the  days  of  the  eighth  Henry.  It 
was  a  preparation  for  reformation,  rather  than 
the  Reformation  itself.  It  was  a  clearing  of 
the  decks,  and  a  cutting  of  the  cables,  which 
would  enable  the  ship  to  be  navigated  and  to 
sail  away  under  the  direction  of  her  own  law- 
ful master  and  officers.  This  was  done,  and 
effectually  done,  prior  to  the  accession  of 
Edward  VI.,  January  28th,  1547. 

If  we  ask,  what  was  the  condition  of  the 
English  Church  when  Henry  breathed  his 
last,  we  answer  generally,  it  was  mediaeval 
still,  save  and  excepting  that  it  had  renounced 
allegiance  to  the  Pope.  Its  continuity  with 
the  past  was  unbroken.  Cranmer  had  suc- 
ceeded Warham  as  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
with  the  sanction  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome  ; 
and  under  him  the  Church  remained  essen- 
tially the  same  in  doctrine,  fellowship,  sacra- 


54        THE  REFORMATION   PRAYER  BOOKS. 

ments  and  prayers.  No  change  was  percep- 
tible in  service  of  worship ;  and  the  people 
gathered  as  they  had  been  accustomed  to  do  in 
their  cathedrals,  parish  churches  and  chapels, 
to  join  in  the  same  prayers  and  participate  in 
the  celebration  of  the  same  sacraments,  as  had 
been  their  habit  since  the  Norman  Conquest. 
The  legislation  of  Henry  VIII.,  as  regards 
doctrine  and  public  worship,  had  promised 
change,  but  effected  little.  Its  course  was 
marked  by  these  enactments  : 

1.  The  Ten  Articles  touching  religion, 
passed  in  the  summer  of  1536. 

2.  The  Institution  of  a  Christian  Man,  "  the 
Bishops'  Book,"  sent  forth  in  1537. 

3.  The  Six  Articles'  law,  enacted  in  1539. 

4.  A  Necessary  Doctrine  and  Erudition  for 
any  Christian  Man,  known  as  "the  King's 
Book,"  adopted  in  1543. 

5.  The  Litany  in  English,  Jane  11,  1544. 

These  publications  were  attempts  to  pop- 
ularize the  teachings  of  the  Church  by  expo- 
sition of  some  of  her  formularies,  and  to 
familiarize  the  people  with  certain  portions  of 
the  service  by  translation.  They  varied  in 
detail  as  to  theological  character,  but  not 
sufficiently  to  affect  the  truth  of  the  general 
statement,  that  they  were  all  thoroughly  medi- 
aeval in  their  character.     Their  bearing  upon 


THE    REFORMATION    PRAYER   BOOKS.        55 

the  especial  subject,  which  we  have  in  hand, 
the  history  of  the  English  Prayer  Book,  lies  in 
this,  that  they  rendered  into  English  and 
explained  tho  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments and  the  Creeds,  and  other  matters 
deemed  necessary  for  a  Christian  man  to  know. 
They  constituted  a  preparation,  therefore,  for 
the  great  achievement  of  the  next  reign,  the 
compilation  and  setting  forth  by  authority  of 
the  English  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 

The  essentials  of  public  worship  in  our 
approach  to  God  in  prayer  and  praise  in  the 
Catholic  Church,  must  continue  always  the 
same.  The  form  may  vary  in  language  and 
arrangement ;  and  indeed  a  moment's  reflection 
will  show  that  this  must  have  been  inevitable 
during  a  period  of  transition  such  as  marked 
the  settlement  and  formation  of  the  nations  of 
Europe  in  the  greater  part  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  say  from  A.  D.  500  to  A.  D.  1300.  For 
then  nothing  was  fixed,  nothing  was  settled. 
Language,  customs,  the  surroundings  and  acci- 
dents of  life  at  home  and  abroad  were  in  a 
state  of  constant  change.  Hence  the  Church, 
as  a  matter  almost  of  necessity,  made  use  of 
the  venerable  language — which  enshrined  the 
literature  of  the  Western  world — in  the  public 
offices  of  religion. 

The  Churchman  of  the  Middle  Ages  and  of 


56        THE  REFORMATION  PRAYER  BOOKS. 

Henry  the  Eighth's  time,  had  no  one  book 
which  would  carry  him  through  the  entire  ser- 
vices of  the  day,  as  is  the  case  with  us  in  our 
Book  of  Common  Prayer.  He  must  have,  for 
example,  his  Breviary  for  daily  offices  ;  his 
Missal  for  the  sacrament  of  the  Altar  ;  his 
Manual  for  the  occasional  offices  which  a 
priest  could  administer  ;  his  Pontifical  for  the 
services  especially  belonging  to  the  office  of  a 
Bishop ;  and  other  books  for  minor  offices, 
and  the  arrangements  of  the  sacred  seasons. 
He  was,  however,  for  the  most  part,  at  less 
disadvantage  than  we  would  at  first  suppose, 
when  thus  deprived  of  the  constant  aid  of  a 
guide  in  his  devotions,  since  the  scenic  char- 
acter of  the  services  and  the  object  lessons  of 
the  ritual  kept  him  in  close  companionship 
with  the  holy  rites  of  his  religion. 

The  reign  of  Edward  VI.  (1547-1553) 
gives  us,  we  may  say,  our  present  Book  of 
Common  Prayer — since  the  Book  which  we 
now  use,  just  revised  and  enriched,  is  essen- 
tially the  same  Book  which  was  set  forth  by 
authority  in  Edward's  first  act  of  uniformity, 
passed  January  21,  1549.  The  successive 
revisions  in  England  since  that  date  have  been 
four  in  number,  those  namely  of  1552,  in 
this  same  reign  ;  of  1559,  in  the  reign  of  Queen 
Elizabeth ;  of  1604,  in  the  reign  of  James  I.; 


THE  REFORMATION  PRAYER  BOOKS.   57 

and  the  final  revision  at  the  Savoy  Confer- 
ence in  1662.  This  final  revision  emphati- 
cally brings  into  view,  by  its  initial  rubric, 
the  ecclesiastical  legislation  of  Edward  VI., 
in  1548,  as  the  guide  in  ritual  for  all  time 
to  come.  The  second  year  of  that  sovereign 
from  January  28,  1548,  to  January  28,  1549, 
is  selected  as  furnishing  in  rite  and  ceremony, 
in  vestments  and  adornment,  the  example, 
which  we  must  follow  if  we  are  obedient  to 
authority  in  the  celebration  of  public  worship, 

As  preliminary  to  the  setting  forth  of  the 
Prayer  Book  in  English,  which  was  in  course 
of  preparation,  M  The  Order  of  Communion  " 
was  authorized  by  royal  proclamation,  March 
8,  1548,  and  continued  in  use  until  Whitsun- 
day, 1549.  In  this  Order  the  portions  addressed 
to  and  for  the  use  of  the  people  were  in  their 
mother  tongue,  while  the  priest's  part  remained 
as  before  in  Latin. 

The  first  Prayer  Book  of  Edward  VI.  was 
compiled  and  arranged  and  set  forth  by  men, 
advanced  in  years  in  1549,  whose  lives  had 
been  passed  hitherto  under  the  old  regime, 
and  who  were  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  litur- 
gical worship  as  they  had  known  it  from 
childhood.  The  Book  was  prepared  for  the 
use  of  a  people,  who  had  never  known  aught 
else  than  liturgic  worship,  and  whose  educa- 


58        THE   REFORMATION   PRAYER  BOOKS. 

tion  and  training  had  ever  been  in  the  use 
of  the  old  service  books.  There  go  with  this 
first  Prayer  Book  of  Edward  VI.,  therefore, 
traditions  and  associations  of  the  past  which 
must  be  kept  in  view  and  taken  into  account 
in  estimating  its  character.  We  must  remem- 
ber what  the  past  had  been  as  touching  public 
worship,  both  on  the  part  of  those  from  whose 
hands  we  receive  the  precious  gift,  and  of 
those  for  whose  use  it  was  primarily  designed. 
This  consideration — and  it  cannot  be  set  aside 
— furnishes  an  interpretation  to  what  else  might 
be  doubtful,  and  emphasizes  with  greater 
force  what  is  clear,  in  its  directions  for  prac- 
tical use  and  its  theological  statements  for 
instruction  in  doctrine. 

The  second  Prayer  Book  of  Edward  VI. , 
which  was  in  use  for  only  a  few  months 
(November  1,  1552,  until  the  death  of  the 
young  King,  July  6,  1553),  was  due  in  its 
production  to  two  facts,  first  the  flight  into 
England  of  numerous  foreign  refugees  from 
Switzerland  and  Germany  and  the  consequent 
strengthening  of  the  extreme  protestant  or 
Zwinglian  party ;  and  secondly  the  depriva- 
tion and  imprisonment  of  conservative  Bish- 
ops and  others,  who  would  have  opposed  the 
radical  spirit  which  was  now  in  the  ascend- 
ant. 


HIE   REFORMATION    PRAYER   BOOKS.        59 

Martin  Bucer,  Peter  Martyr  and  others 
from  the  continent  led  the  attack  upon  the  first 
Prayer  Book  of  Edward  VI.  The  factions 
which  ruled  the  land — the  Somersets  and  the 
Northumberlands — cared  for  nothing  save  self- 
aggrandizement,  and  hence  were  ready  to  sanc- 
tion anything  which  would  subserve  their 
personal  ambition  and  their  greed  for  wealth. 

The  chief  grounds  of  assault  against  the  Book 
were  found  in  the  Eucharistic  Office,  and  the 
vestments.  In  the  end  the  malcontents  tri- 
umphed, and  a  second  act  of  uniformity  was 
passed  in  January,  1552,  authorizing  and  en- 
joining a  revised  Book  of  Common  Prayer  ; 
which  was  to  come  into  use  in  the  succeeding 
autumn,  on  the  feast  of  All  Saint3.  This  Book 
records  the  low-water  mark  of  the  English  Re- 
formation; and  hence,  if  we  find,  that  with  all  its 
changes  in  the  direction  of  Zurich  and  Geneva, 
it  drops  no  essential  principle  of  Catholicity,  we 
may  rest  assured  that  the  continuity  of  our 
Mother  Church  in  the  prayers  as  well  as  in  the 
episcopal  succession  was  never  broken.  This  is 
the  undoubted  fact.  First,  the  act  of  uniform- 
ity, which  establishes  the  second  Book,  indorses 
the  first  in  these  words  :  "  It  is  a  very  godly 
order,  agreeable  to  the  Word  of  God  and  the 
primitive  Church,  very  comfortable  to  all  good 
people  desiring  to  live  in  Christian  conversation 


60        THE  REFORMATION  PRATER  BOOKS. 

and  most  profitable  to  the  estate  of  this  realm." 
Second,  the  many  changes  which  appear  in  this 
Book  in  variation  from  its  predecessor,  are  due 
to  omission  and  transposition,  rather  than  te 
substitution  of  new  matter.  There  is,  it  is 
true,  much  in  this  Book,  which  a  loyal  Church- 
man laments,  but  there  is  nothing  which  need 
make  him  tremble  for  the  preservation  of  the 
orthodoxy  of  our  communion.  It  has  been 
suggested,  that  Cranmer  brought  under  the 
notice  of  the  revisers  the  Mozarabic  Missal, 
which  is  closely  allied  to  the  old  Gallican  use, 
and  that  thus  the  changes  in  the  arrangement 
of  the  Communion  Office,  and  of  other  parts 
of  the  new  Book,  can  be  explained.  This  is  a 
reasonable  conjecture,  but  whether  true  or 
not,  the  fact  remains,  that  there  is  a  likeness 
between  our  Prayer  Book  of  to-day  and  the 
Gallican  Liturgy. 

The  replacing  an  old  Book  with  a  new  was 
not  so  rapid  a  process  in  those  days  (1552)  as  it 
is  now,  and  as  the  feast  of  All  Saints  (Novem- 
ber 1),  1552,  was  the  date  of  the  introduction 
of  the  second  Book,  and  Edward  VI.  deceased 
on  the  6th  of  July  of  the  following  year,  there 
was  scarcely  opportunity  for  this  revision  to 
have  reached  the  parish  churches  before  the 
great  change  came  when  the  Princess  Mary  be- 
came Queen,  July  6,  1553. 


THE    REFORMATION    PRAYER   BOOKS.        61 

The  importance  of  the  Book,  however,  lies 
not  in  the  length  of  time  it  was  in  use,  but  in 
the  fact,  that  it  was  chosen  as  the  model  after 
which  the  revision  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Eliz- 
abeth was  made,  in  1559  ;  and  in  consequence 
it  has  influenced  all  subsequent  revisions,  and 
our  own  American  Prayer  Book. 

The  reign  of  Queen  Mary  (1553-1558)  is  a 
blank  as  regards  our  English  Prayer  Book, 
since  she  brought  back  the  status  of  ecclesias- 
tical affairs  to  what  it  was  at  the  close  of  her 
father's  (Henry  VIII.)  reign,  1547 — save  and 
excepting  the  rehabilitation  of  the  monasteries, 
which  Henry  had  dissolved,  and  the  restoration 
to  their  owners  of  the  Church  lands,  which  her 
father  and  half-brother  had  forcibly  alienated. 
But  Mary's  reign  chronicles  one  fact  which  must 
be  noted,  namely,  that  the  Church's  continuity 
was  not  broken — although  she  brought  England 
back  to  its  mediaeval  position  of  submission  to 
the  Pope.  The  Roman  authorities  waited  until 
Archbishop  Cranmer  was  executed,  before  Car- 
dinal Pole  was  placed  in  the  See  of  Canterbury. 
There  was  no  break — the  Pope,  even  after  all 
that  had  occurred,  recognized  Cranmer's  posi- 
tion ;  and  Pole  succeeded  when  his  predeces- 
sor was  dead,  and  not  till  then.  The  Church, 
in  her  flow  of  life,  had  passed  thus  far  without 
interruption,  from  the  episcopate  of  Archbishop 


62        THE   REFORMATION   PRAYER   BOOKS. 

Warham  to  that  of  Pole.  The  conflict  had  been, 
and  was,  between  the  old  and  new  service  books 
in  use  in  the  land.  There  were  as  yet  not  two 
rival  Churches  in  England.  There  were  two 
schools  in  the  one  national  Church ;  and  now 
for  five  years  the  cause  of  the  old  triumphed 
over  the  new.  The  submission  to  Rome  was 
an  accident,  deplorable  of  course,  but  still  an 
accident  which  did  not  destroy  the  Church's 
life.  She  lived  on  and  carried  the  nation  with 
her  as  one  communion  until  the  twelfth  year 
of  Queen  Elizabeth,  when  Rome  by  formal  act 
withdrew  her  subjects  from  the  Church's  altars 
and  set  up  rival  and  schismatic  altars  of  her 
own.  Then,  in  1571,  the  English  people 
became  divided;  and  formal  schism  from  the 
Church  of  England  for  the  first  time  appeared 
when  the  Pope  excommunicated  the  Queen, 
released  her  subjects  from  their  allegiance,  and 
commanded  those  who  were  willing  to  obey  to 
forsake  their  Mother  Church — which  alone  held 
canonical  jurisdiction  in  the  land — and  submit 
to  his  usurped  authority.  While  Henry,  and 
Edward,  and  Mary  reigned,  there  was  but  one 
Church  in  England.  Nor  were  there  two  until 
Elizabeth  had  been  upon  the  throne  for  twelve 
years,  and  then  the  sin  of  schism  was  begun  by 
Rome,  and  has  been  continued  by  her  ever 
since.       Meanwhile   Cardinal  Pole  had  died, 


THE   REFORMATION   PRAYER  BOOKS.        63 

within  a  day  of  Queen  Mary,  in  1558,  and 
Archbishop  Parker  had  succeeded,  and  all  the 
functions  of  ecclesiastical  life  had  passed  with- 
out interruption  to  him,  to  bo  transmitted  by 
him  to  others  until,  wo  trust,  the  end  of  time. 

With  Queen  Elizabeth  (1558-1603),  came 
the  final  triumph  of  the  new  service  books  over 
the  old.  Her  act  of  uniformity  carrying  with  it 
her  Prayer  Book,  was  passed  in  1559.  The  sec- 
ond Book  of  Edward  VI.  was  chosen  as  the 
basis  of  revision.  This  pacified  the  extreme 
Protestants,  while  the  changes  in  the  direction 
of  primitive  and  Catholic  use  reconciled  the 
conservatives — and  the  third  English  Prayer 
Book  was  established  by  law,  June  24,  1559. 

The  changes  were  few  but  important.  Tho 
Ornaments  Rubric  brought  the  Church  back  in 
externals  to  the  second  year  (1548)  of  Edward 
VI.  The  combination  of  the  words  of  admin- 
istration of  tho  Holy  Communion  employed  in 
the  two  Books  of  Edward,  and  the  omission  of 
the  Black  Rubric  upon  kneeling  at  reception,  as- 
serted doctrinal  truth  which  had  been  obscured 
in  the  Book  of  1552.  This  Book,  with  very 
slight  changes  which  were  made  at  the  Hamp- 
ton Court  Conference  and  enjoined  by  James 
First's  act  of  uniformity  in  1604,  remained  in 
use  for  nearly  one  hundred  years,  until  the 
reign  of  Charles  II.  in  1662 — with  the  excep- 


64        THE   REFORMATION  PEAYER  BOOKS. 

tion,  of  course,  of  the  period  of  the  Protect- 
orate of  Cromwell,  when  all  liturgical  services 
were  banished  from  the  land. 

The  settlement  under  Queen  Elizabeth  estab- 
lishes and  fixes  the  uninterrupted  continuity  of 
the  English  Church,  from  the  remotest  antiq- 
uity to  that  date,  upon  a  basis  of  historic  evi- 
dence which  cannot  be  shaken.  This  continuity 
in  office,  in  doctrine,  in  prayers,  is  the  first  and 
great  principle  of  the  English  Reformation.  A 
national  Church  the  English  Church  had  ever 
been.  Magna  Charta  in  its  first  article  pro- 
claimed her  free,  and  she  had  not  been  back- 
ward in  making  good  this  proclamation  of  her 
freedom,  in  her  relations  with  the  Patriarch  of 
Rome.  She  had  acknowledged  him  as  the 
administrative  head  of  Christendom,  but  be- 
yond that  point  she  would  not  go ;  and  when 
his  demands  exceeded  what  was  reasonable 
and  just  she  successfully  resisted  them.  At 
length,  as  we  have  seen,  the  occasion  was  sup- 
plied on  the  part  of  Henry  VIII.  to  sever 
absolutely  her  connection  with  Rome,  and  the 
three  estates  of  the  realm — Parliament,  Con- 
vocation and  the  Crown — concurred  in  the 
action,  and  the  English  Church  was  free.  The 
temporary  return  to  submission  to  papal  author- 
ity under  Queen  Mary  (1553-1558)  did  not  in 
the  least  compromise  the  national  character  and 


THE   REFORMATION    PKAYKU    BOOKS.        G5 

constitution  of  our  Mother  Church  of  England. 
Indeed,  up  to  tho  Vatican  Council  of  1870,  the 
national  autonomy  of  the  Churches  owning 
obedience  to  the  Roman  Patriarchate  was  never 
in  essence  lost.  The  Gallican  liberties,  for  ex- 
ample, were  not  a  myth,  but  a  reality,  even 
within  the  century  now  closing  ;  and  the  Uniat 
Churches  on  the  eastern  borders  of  Europe 
illustrate  tho  truth  of  this  statement. 

The  English  Church  reformed  herself  from 
within,  on  constitutional  and  canonical  lines. 
Archbishop  Parker  was  as  truly  the  successor 
of  Augustine  as  were  Pole,  Cranmer  and  War- 
ham.  And  under  him,  as  representing  Apos- 
tolical polity,  were  sheltered  and  sanctioned 
doctrines,  morals,  sacraments  and  prayers. 

The  Apostolical  succession,  so  scrupulously 
guarded  and  preserved  through  the  reigns  of 
Henry,  Edward,  Mary  and  Elizabeth,  furnishes 
an  irrefutable  answer  to  the  charge  of  schism; 
and  the  retention  of  the  three  creeds  and  the 
explicit  endorsement  and  recognition  of  the 
four  ecumenical  councils  constitute  a  sufficient 
reply  to  the  allegation  of  heresy. 

Our  fortunes  are  bound  up  with  those  of  our 
Mother  Church ;  and  hence  we  may  look  back 
with  satisfaction  to  her  foundations  exposed 
to  view  through  discussion  and  contention  for 
full   thirty  years  (1529-1559)  in  the  heart  of 


66        THE   REFORMATION"   PRAYER   BOOKS. 

the  sixteenth  century.  Polity,  doctrine,  sacra- 
ments and  prayers  survive  the  violent  convul- 
sions and  vicissitudes  of  these  stormy  days  ;  and 
the  continuous  flow  of  the  Church's  life,  in  her 
fourfold  channels,  is  never  interrupted  or  dried 
up,  but  runs  right  on  and  down  to  more  peace- 
ful years  when  dangers  are  past.  And  now  it 
comes  to  us,  with  its  treasures  of  priceless  worth 
for  time  and  for  eternity. 

The  last  revision  of  the  English  Prayer  Book 
occurred  in  1662,  on  the  accession  of  Charles  II. 
at  the  Eestoration.  The  basis  of  revision  was, 
of  course,  Elizabeth's  Prayer  Book  of  1559. 
This  was  strengthened,  in  the  direction  of  the 
explicit  assertion  of  positive  truth.  The 
Bishops  and  theologians  of  1662  had  learned 
wisdom  from  their  ancestors  of  1552,  and  from 
the  terrible  experience  of  the  last  eleven  years 
under  the  Commonwealth  ;  and  they  naturally 
turned  away,  with  stern  resolve,  from  Geneva, 
and  faced  Catholic  antiquity.  For  example— to 
be  specific  in  a  few  instances.  In  the  title  to 
the  Absolution,  and  in  other  places  where  the 
priestly  office  is  necessary  for  the  valid  perform- 
ance of  rite  or  act,  the  word  "Minister"  is 
replaced  by  the  word  "  Priest."  In  the  Com- 
munion Office  the  first  oblation  of  the  bread 
and  wine  was  enjoined  ;  the  rubrics  relating  to 
the  manual  acts  in  the  consecration  of   the 


THE    REFORMATION    PRAYER   BOOKS.        67 

Blessed  Eucharist  were  inserted  ;  and  the  ru- 
brics which  direct  the  Priest  how  ho  shall  con- 
secrate more  bread  and  wine,  and  how  he  shall 
reverently  care  for  what  remains  of  the  conse- 
crated elements,  were  added.  And  the  Orna- 
ments Rubric,  which  was  borrowed  from  Eliza- 
beth's act  of  uniformity,  and  which  stands  as 
the  general  law  governing  the  externals  of  the 
Church  of  England  in  her  fabrics  and  clergy, 
was  amended  to  make  it  more  clear  and  explicit, 
and  was  retained  in  its  place  at  the  beginning 
of  the  Book.  It  reads  as  follows  :  "  And  here 
is  to  be  noted  that  such  ornaments  of  the 
Church  and  of  the  Ministers  thereof  at  all 
times  of  their  ministrations  shall  be  retained 
and  be  in  use  as  were  in  this  Church  of 
England  by  the  authority  of  Parliament  in  the 
second  year"  [January  28,  1548 — January  28, 
1549]  "of  the  reign  of  King  Edward  the 
Sixth."  These  illustrations  will  serve  to  show 
the  spirit  of  the  teaching  embodied  in  the  pres- 
ent Prayer  Book  of  our  Mother  Church  of 
England. 

The  revision  of  1662  may  be  justly  called  the 
last,  because  no  changes  of  any  moment  have 
been  made  since  by  the  orders-in-council ; 
which  have  necessarily  been  issued,  on  the 
accession  of  successive  sovereigns — and  by  the 
Amendment  to  the  Act  of  Uniformity  passed  in 


68        THE  REFORMATION   PRAYER  BOOKS. 

the  reign  of  Queen  Victoria.  The  Church  of 
1662,  therefore,  has  been  from  that  date  and  is 
to-day  the  ecclesia  docens  of  England.  When 
we  took  our  departure  as  an  independent 
daughter  Church,  we  brought  our  Mother's 
Prayer  Book  with  us,  and  used  it,  as  far  as 
local  circumstances  would  allow,  as  our  own. 
This  fact  we  explicitly  declare  in  the  Preface 
of  our  Prayer  Book,  since  we  affirm  in  unmis- 
takable language  as  follows  :  "  This  Church  is 
far  from  intending  to  depart  from  the  Church 
of  England  in  any  essential  point  of  doctrine, 
discipline  or  worship,  or  further  than  local 
circumstances  require." 

Our  Prayer  Book,  therefore,  is  a  blessed 
memorial  of  the  past,  replete  with  interest  which 
centres  in,  and  gathers  around,  no  other  book 
save  the  Bible.  Indeed,  the  Prayer  Book  gives 
expression  to  the  Bible.  It  is  the  Bible's  voice  ; 
it  is  the  Bible  in  action.  The  Prayer  Book,  in 
the  use  of  the  congregation,  makes  the  Word 
of  God  vocal  in  supplication  and  praise.  The 
Prayer  Book,  in  the  hands  of  the  Priest  and 
people,  is  the  instrument  for  the  celebration  of 
sacraments  and  holy  rites,  the  performance  of 
acts  which  the  Bible  enjoins  as  of  perpetual 
obligation.  The  heart  of  the  Prayer  Book  is  the 
Communion  Office,  because  in  the  celebration 
of  that  holy  sacrament  we  "do  show  forth  the 


THE   REFORMATION   PRAYER  BOOKS.        69 

Lord's  death  till  Ho  come  ; "  and  this  exhibition 
of  Calvary  carries  us  back  to  the  sacrifice  of 
Abel,  and  forward  to  the  vision  of  "  the  Lamb 
slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world,"  the 
Lamb  in  the  midst  of  the  throne.  This  service 
is  the  centre  around  which  all  else  is  grouped. 
The  other  services  lead  up  to  it,  and  are  related 
to  it,  in  the  ideal  of  the  Christian  life.  Baptism, 
Catechism,  Confirmation,  are  steps  to  the  Lord's 
Table.  The  daily  offices  are  a  lesser  commun- 
ion, and  Holy  Matrimony  and  the  Visitation 
of  the  Sick  and  the  Burial  of  the  Dead,  lack 
something  if  the  Blessed  Eucharist  does  not 
crown  them  with  its  benediction. 

The  sacrifices  of  the  law — the  burnt  offering, 
the  peace  offering  and  the  sin  offering — looked 
forward  to  the  one  "full,  perfect,  and  sufficient 
sacrifice,  oblation,  and  satisfaction,  for  the  sins 
of  the  whole  world,"  which  was  offered  upon 
the  cross.  "The  Apostles'  prayers"  enshrined 
the  service  which  commemorated  the  sacrifice 
of  Calvary,  and  applied,  by  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  the  benefits  of  the  Atonement  to 
the  worthy  recipient.  The  Law  passed  into  the 
Gospel,  in  the  Breaking  of  the  Bread  and  in 
the  prayers  of  the  Apostles ;  and  these  we  have 
in  our  Office  for  the  administration  of  the  Holy 
Communion.  This  is  the  heart,  therefore,  of 
our  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  as  it  has  ever 


70        THE   REFORMATION   PRAYER   BOOKS. 

been  in  essence  the  heart  of  all  worship.  Here 
we  have,  beyond  all  doubt,  the  echo  of  the 
voices  of  those  who  had  heard  our  Lord  say, 
"  Take,  eat ;  this  is  My  Body.  Drink  ye  all  of 
it;  for  this  is  My  Blood."  And  in  succession 
ever  since,  without  intermission,  at  stated  inter- 
vals living  men,  authorized  to  act  and  speak  in 
the  Lord's  name,  have  continued  to  break  the 
Bread  and  to  pray,  down  to  our  own  time  and 
to  us.  What  a  wonderful  book  our  Common 
Prayer  Book  is  !  It  lies  upon  our  tables  or  is 
held  in  our  hands  like  any  other  book ;  but, 
unlike  any  other  book,  it  springs  into  life  and 
has  voice  and  action  when  God's  people  pray 
to  Him  and  praise  Him,  and  when  priest  and 
congregation  join  in  the  celebration  of  sacra- 
ments and  sacred  functions.  What  a  wonder- 
ful book  our  Common  Prayer  Book  is !  It 
connects  us  by  hand  joined  to  hand  of  living 
men  who  have  used  the  essentials  of  its  offices, 
to  the  birth  day  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  when 
the  Apostles  began,  with  the  first  believers,  to 
celebrate  the  holy  mysteries  in  the  breaking  of 
the  Bread,  and  to  offer  the  prayers.  What  a 
wonderful  book  our  Common  Prayer  Book  is  ! 
It  brings  the  future  into  view,  in  some  details, 
even  to  the  end  of  time.  Changes  many  and 
great  may  take  place,  and  almost  all  things  may 
wear  a  different  aspect,  but  here  in  our  Book 


THE   REFORMATION    PRAYER   BOOKS.        71 

of  Common  Prayer  wo  have  fixed  realities,  we 
have  things  which  will  not,  which  cannot 
change.  We  have  Baptism,  and  Confirmation, 
and  the  Holy  Communion.  We  may  look  for- 
ward into  the  dim  and  distant  future,  and 
though  we  may  bo  certain  of  very  little  on 
other  lines  of  prophecy  and  promise,  yet  along 
those  which  our  authorized  spiritual  guide-book 
lays  down,  wo  are  sure  of  what  will  come  to 
pass.  Our  children  are  within  view,  and  their 
children  may  appear  before  our  eyes  close  in 
death  ;  but  in  imagination  we  may  go  on  pictur- 
ing to  ourselves  unborn  generations,  filling  with 
life  the  centuries  yet  to  be,  and  among  them 
and  for  them,  our  posterity  however  remote, 
will  abide  the  blessings  treasured  up  in  our 
Book  of  Common  Prayer.  Let  us  then  be 
loyal  to  its  teaching,  and  faithful  in  its  use. 
Let  us  not  compromise  the  priceless  truth, 
which  it  puts  in  our  possession  as  a  sacred 
trust,  for  our  own  instruction  and  a  legacy  for 
our  children.  Let  us  remember,  that  those 
who  form  the  front  rank  of  believers  in  Christ, 
and  on  whom  the  light  of  the  Blessed  Spirit 
shines  in  the  Word  of  God,  revealing  them  to 
us  as  examples,  are  described  as  continuing 
"  stedfastly  in  the  Apostles'  doctrine  and  fel- 
lowship, and  in  the  breaking  of  bread,  and  in 
prayers." 


72        THE  REFORMATION   PRAYER  BOOKS. 

This  word  stedfastly  belongs  to  those  Pente- 
costal believers.  Let  us  strive  to  make  it  ours 
as  well.  Let  us  hold  our  Prayer  Books  firmly 
in  our  hands.  Let  us  refuse  to  listen  to  voices 
which  would  fain  persuade  us  to  play  fast  and 
loose  with  truth,  to  evade  it,  and  explain  it 
away.  Let  us  ever  bear  in  mind  that  our  Book 
of  Common  Prayer  is  a  positive  Book.  It 
affirms  truth  in  the  spirit  of  love  clearly  and 
explicitly.  It  teaches  us  to  say  "I  believe,  I 
believe."  All  around  us  the  air  is  full  of  eva- 
sions, interpretations,  negations  :  all  around  us 
men  are  saying  "  I  don't  know,"  "  I  doubt," 
"  I  don't  believe,"  "  I  can't  accept  this."  Alas, 
stedfastness  was  never  born  of  doubt,  evasion, 
negation  ;  it  is  made  of  sterner  stuff ;  it  is  the 
essence  of  true  manhood  ;  it  must  rest  on  solid 
foundations — and  these  foundations  our  Prayer 
Book  places  beneath  our  feet  in  the  creeds  and 
sacraments  and  means  of  grace.  Our  founda- 
tion is  Christ,  and  He  is  the  subject  of  our  Book 
of  Common  Prayer.  Let  us  then  be  stedfast, 
like  the  first  believers,  and  uphold  the  teaching 
and  practice  enjoined  by  our  Prayer  Book,  by 
leading  lives  answerable  to  our  profession.  You 
have  yet  to  read  and  learn  how  our  American 
Prayer  Book  was  revised  a  century  ago,  and 
how  in  the  present  year  it  comes  to  us  once 
more   revised,  and  enriched,   and  completed, 


THE  REFORMATION   PRAYER  BOOKS.        73 

and,  so  to  speak,  sealed  for  use  without  further 
change  we  trust  for  a  very  long  time  to  come. 
As  you  read  the  chapters  which  succeed,  the 
conviction  will  deepen  within  you,  I  am  sure, 
that  as  a  Church  we  have  hitherto  continued 
stedfastly  in  the  Apostles'  prayers. 


EARLY    AMERICAN    PRAYER 
BOOKS. 


EARLY  AMERICAN  PRAYER 
BOOKS. 

It  is  most  fitting  that,  in  connection  with 
the  consideration  of  the  Standard  Prayer 
Book  of  1892,  we  should  consider  the  litur- 
gical work  our  fathers  did,  and  the  guiding 
principles  which  gave  us  the  Prayer  Book  of 
our  first  hundred  years  of  life  and  growth. 
Within  the  walls  of  Christ  Church,  Philadel- 
phia, there  gathered,  day  after  day,  the 
Churchmen  of  1785  and  1789,  debating,  first, 
the  changes  rendered  necessary  to  make  the 
services  u  conformable  to  the  principles  of  the 
American  Revolution  and  the  Constitutions  of 
the  several  States";  and,  secondly,  the  further 
alterations  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer 
which  took  shape  in  the  u  Proposed  Book  ; " 
and  then,  in  1789,  the  practical  return  to  the 
English  Prayer  Book  as  a  model  and  guide  in 
forming  our  present  book.  We  may  well  and 
wisely  review  the  work  thus  done.  At  our  en- 
trance upon  a  second  century  of  autonomous 
existence;  at  the  period  in  our  history  when 
the  labours  of  a  decade  and  more  of  years  of 


78         EARLY  AMERICAN  PRAYER  BOOKS. 

liturgical  study  and  legislation  haye  resulted  in 
the  adoption  of  a  new  Standard;  we  may  profit- 
ably recall  the  story  of  the  earlier  revisions,  and 
review  in  the  light  of  a  century's  experience 
the  measures  and  men  of  1785  and  1789. 

A  score  or  more  of  foolscap  sheets,  soiled  and 
stained  with  age,  largely  in  the  handwriting  of 
William  White,  and  displaying  the  cramped, 
abbreviated  style  of  writing  he  so  uniformly 
employed,  record  the  "Acts  of  the  Conven- 
tion of  1785."  Of  these,  "  The  Alterations 
agreed  upon  and  confirmed  in  Convention  for 
rendering  the  Liturgy  conformable  to  the  Prin- 
ciples of  the  American  Kevolution  and  the 
Constitutions  of  the  Several  States,"  afford  us 
the  results  of  the  first  attempt  of  our  fathers 
at  a  revision  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 
It  is  certainly  characteristic  of  the  patriotic 
White,  as  well  as  thoroughly  consonant  with 
the  environment  of  the  revisers  of  1785,  that 
this  first  American  liturgical  document  should 
begin  with  words  such  as  these  : 

"  That  in  the  Suffrages,  after  the  Creed,  in- 
stead of  0  Lord,  save  the  King  be  said,  0 
Lord,  Mess  and  preserve  these  United  States." 

The  Churchmen  of  1785  were  patriots;  and 
the  shaping  of  our  services  as  we  have  them  in 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  we  have  used  for 
a  hundred  years,  was  done  by  the  very  men 


EARLY   AMERICAN    PRAYER   BOOKS.         79 

who,  iu  the  halls  of  Congress  or  on  the  field  of 
battle,  won  for  us  our  independence.  It  was 
the  first  expression  of  the  autonomy  of  the 
American  Church — this  breathing  to  the  God, 
who  had  given  us  our  nationality,  of  the 
Church's  prayer  for  the  benediction  and  preser- 
vation of  the  United  States  ! 

Following  this  patriotic  aspiration  were  di- 
rections for  the  omission  of  the  prayers  for  the 
reigning  family  of  Great  Britain,  in  the  morn- 
ing and  evening  services ;  the  omission  of  the 
suffrages  of  the  Litany  for  the  king  and  royal 
family ;  and  the  substitution,  in  place  of  the  suf- 
frages on  behalf  of  parliament,  of  the  petition, 
"  That  it  may  please  Thee  to  endue  the  Congress 
of  these  United  States,  and  all  others  in  au- 
thority, legislative,  executive,  and  judicial, 
with  grace,  wisdom,  and  understanding,  to  ex- 
ecute justice  and  to  maintain  truth."  For  the 
Prayer  for  the  High  Court  of  Parliament  pre- 
scribed in  the  English  Office  when  the  Litany 
was  not  read,  a  Prayer  for  Congress  was  set 
forth.  The  Collect  for  the  King's  Majesty  was 
changed  so  as  to  comprehend  w  all  in  authority, 
legislative,  executive,  and  judicial,  in  these 
United  States."  The  Collects  for  the  king  in 
the  Communion  Office  were  omitted,  or  simi- 
larly changed.  In  the  answer  in  the  Catechism 
to  the  question  u  What  is  thy  duty  towards  thy 


80         EARLY   AMERICAN   PRAYER   BOOKS. 

neighbour  ?  "  the  words,  "  To  honour  and  obey 
the  king,"  were  changed  so  as  to  read  :  "  To 
honour  and  obey  my  civil  rulers."  In  place 
of  the  observance  of  November  5th,  January 
30th,  May  29th,  and  October  25th,  a  Service 
was  appointed  to  "be  used  on  the  4th  of  July, 
being  the  anniversary  of  Independence."  In 
the  Forms  of  Prayer  to  be  used  at  Sea,  the 
" United  States  of  America"  took  the  place 
of  the  reference  to  "our  most  gracious  Sov- 
ereign Lord  King  George  and  his  kingdom," 
and  the  word  "island "gave  place  to  "coun- 
try." The  words,  "0  Almighty  God,  the 
Sovereign  Commander,"  were  omitted,  and 
? '  the  honour  of  our  country  "  was  substituted 
for  "  the  honour  of  our  sovereign." 

These  changes  were  a  necessity.  At  the 
breaking  out  of  the  war,  the  clergy  who  con- 
tinued to  use  the  state  prayers  in  the  service 
were  subjected  to  interruption  and  insult,  and 
often  to  personal  peril.  As  the  wish  for  inde- 
pendence took  shape  in  the  minds  of  the  peo- 
ple, the  clergy  were  forced  to  face  the  problem 
of  ceasing  their  public  ministrations,  or  of 
omitting  these  obnoxious  prayers.  In  Christ 
Church,  Philadelphia,  the  first  formal  and  au- 
thoritative change  in  the  services  took  place,  ere 
had  ceased  the  echoes  of  its  chimes,  ringing 
in — responsive  to  the  pealing  of    the   State 


EARLY   AMERICAN    1  81 

House  bell — the  proclamation  of  liberty  to  the 
world.  On  the  4th  of  July,  177G,  the  vestry 
of  this  church,  from  among  whoso  worship- 
pers and  pew-holders  fully  half  a  dozen  of  the 
" signers"  were  furnished,  met,  and  ordered 
the  omission  of  the  prayers  for  the  king  and 
royal  family.1  The  Virginia  legislature,  by 
formal  vote,  took  the  same  step  the  following 
day.    The  vestry  of  Trinity  Church,  Boston,  on 

1  The  action  of  this  Vestry,  taken  at  a  meeting  held 
at  the  house  of  the  Rector,  the  Rev.  Jacob  Duch6, 
D.D.,  on  the  night  of  the  fourth  of  July,  177G,  was  the 
first  official  recognition,  given  by  any  public  body,  to  the 
nationality  of  the  United  States.  It  may  be  truthfully 
said,  that  the  American  Church  was  thus  foremost  in 
recognizing  the  American  State.  The  original  record 
of  this  event,  in  the  minutes  of  the  Vestry,  is  carefully 
preserved  in  the  archives  of  Christ  Church.  The 
resolution  adopted  reads  as  follows  :  "  Whereas,  the 
honorable  Continental  Congress  have  resolved  to  declare 
the  American  colonies  to  be  free  and  independent 
States,  in  consequence  of  which  it  will  be  proper  to 
omit  those  petitions  in  the  Liturgy,  wherein  the  King 
of  Great  Britain  is  prayed  for,  as  inconsistent  with  the 
said  declaration,  Therefore,  resolved  that  it  appears 
to  this  Vestry  to  bo  necessary,  for  the  peace  and  well 
being  of  the  Churches,  to  omit  the  said  petitions  ;  and 
the  rector  and  assistant  ministers  of  the  united 
Churches  are  requested  in  the  name  of  the  Vestry  and 
their  constituents,  to  omit  such  petitions  as  are  above 
mentioned."— Ed. 


82         EARLY  AMERICAN  PRAYER  BOOKS. 

the  receipt  of  the  news  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  requested  their  rector — the  ex- 
cellent Parker,  afterward  the  second  Bishop 
of  Massachusetts — to  omit  the  same  prayers. 
Elsewhere  this  course  was  followed,  either  by 
vestry-vote  or  in  glad  recognition  of  the  fact 
so  often  asserted  by  our  fathers,  and  expressed 
in  their  own  language  in  the  preface  to  our 
Book  of  Common  Prayer,  that,  "  When,  in  the 
course  of  Divine  Providence,  these  American 
States  became  independent  with  respect  to 
civil  government,  their  ecclesiastical  independ- 
ence was  necessarily  included."  We  may  then, 
in  this  connection,  seek  to  emphasize  the  his- 
toric statement,  that  in  Christ  Church,  Phila- 
delphia, and  by  the  formal  act  of  its  con- 
stituted authorities,  the  Prayer  Book  of  our 
fathers  was  first  adapted  to  the  change  in 
the  civil  relations  of  the  people,  and  the  free- 
dom of  the  American  Church  from  the  duty 
of  recognizing  an  alien  ruler  and  a  foreign 
domination  first  fully  asserted  to  the  world. 
Honour,  then,  is  rightly  due  to  the  vestry  and 
people  of  the  united  congregations  of  Christ 
Church  and  St.  Peter's,  who  were  thus  the 
pioneers  in  the  work  of  American  liturgical 
revision. 

Bishop  White  tells  us  that  at  the  assembling 
of  the  Convention  of  1785  in  Christ  Church, 


EARLY   AMERICAN   PRAYER   BOOKS.         83 

Philadelphia,  few  if  any  of  the  delegates 
contemplated  other  or  further  changes  in  the 
Prayer  Book  than  were  necessary  to  make  its 
language  conform  to  the  altered  condition  of 
civil  affairs.  The  fundamental  principles  first 
formulated  in  White's  own  statesman-like  essay 
on  Hie  Case  of  the  Episcopal  Churches  Consid- 
ered, and  clearly  enunciated  at  the  preliminary 
Convention  of  1784 — held  in  New  York,  and 
more  generally  attended  than  the  meetings 
prior  to  the  second  Convention  of  17S9 — ex- 
pressly limited  the  alterations  of  the  liturgy  to 
those  rendered  necessary  by  the  civil  independ- 
ence already  secured.  In  Connecticut  and 
throughout  New  England,  and,  in  fact,  to  a 
large  extent  in  New  York  and  New  Jersey, 
the  clergy  and  laity  deemed  themselves  incom- 
petent to  undertake  the  revision  of  the  liturgy 
while  destitute  of  the  episcopal  order.  So 
widely  did  this  principle  obtain  that  the 
Assembly  of  Virginia  restrained  the  clergy  by 
specific  enactment  from  consenting  directly  or 
indirectly  "  to  any  alterations  in  the  order,  gov- 
ernment, doctrine,  or  worship  of  the  Church." 
It  was  but  natural  then,  that  the  earliest  repre- 
sentative gathering  of  American  Churchmen 
from  the  various  States  laid  down  as  a  prin- 
ciple of  the  Church's  organization,  that  it  "shall 
maintain  the  doctrines  of  the  Gospel  as  now 


84         EARLY  AMERICAN  PRAYER  BOOKS. 

held  by  the  Church  of  England,  and  shall 
adhere  to  the  liturgy  of  the  said  Church,  as  far 
as  shall  be  consistent  with  the  American  Bevo- 
lution  and  the  Constitutions  of  the  respective 
States." 

Even  as  late  as  May,  1785,  the  Convention 
of  Virginia,  untrammelled  by  the  "  fundamen- 
tal principles  M  of  the  meeting  in  New  York 
in  1784,  gave  an  unwilling  sanction  to  a  review 
of  the  Prayer  Book,  accompanying  its  assent 
with  the  requirement  of  the  use  of  the  English 
book  "  with  such  alterations  as  the  American 
^Revolution  has  rendered  necessary." 

In  the  interval  between  the  preliminary  meet- 
ing of  1784,  in  New  York,  and  the  gathering  in 
Christ  Church,  Philadelphia,  of  the  Conven- 
tion of  1785,  Seabury  had  been  consecrated  by 
the  Scottish  Bishops  for  Connecticut,  and  had 
been  enthusiastically  welcomed  to  his  see  by 
the  representative  Churchmen  of  New  Eng- 
land and  New  York.  At  his  first  Convocation, 
held  a  few  weeks  before  the  meeting  in  Phila- 
delphia, in  the  autumn  of  1785,  the  Bishop  of 
Connecticut,  with  the  Kev.  Samuel  Parker, 
of  Trinity  Church,  Boston,  afterward  Bishop 
of  Massachusetts ;  the  Eev.  Benjamin  Moore, 
afterward  Bishop  of  New  York,  and  the  Eev. 
Abraham  Jarvis,  Seabury's  successor  in  the  see 
of  Connecticut,  gave  careful  consideration  to 


EARLY   AMERICAN   PRAYER  BOOKS.        85 

the  matter  of  Prayer-Book  alterations  ;  but 
their  action  was  confined  to  the  changes  deemed 
necessary  to  accommodate  the  Prayer-Book  ser- 
vices to  the  civil  constitution.  "  Should  moro 
be  done,"  writes  Seabury  to  White,  in  giving  an 
account  of  the  Middletown  Convocation,  M  it 
must  be  a  work  of  time  and  great  deliberation. " 
A  Convention  of  the  churches  of  Massachusetts, 
New  Hampshire,  and  Rhode  Island,  held  in 
September,  1785,  ratified  the  omissions  and  al- 
terations agreed  upon  at  Middletown,  and 
postponed  action  on  other  proposed  changes 
till  after  the  Convocation  appointed  to  meet  at 
New  Haven,  and  the  Convention  about  to  con- 
vene in  Philadelphia. 

Few  more  notable  gatherings  than  that 
assembled  in  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia,  in 
September,  1785,  are  recorded  in  our  ecclesi- 
astical annals.  Sixteen  clergymen  and  twenty- 
one  laymen,  of  whom  five  clergymen  and  thir- 
teen laymen  were  from  Pennsylvania,  and  one 
clergyman  and  six  laymen  from  Delaware, 
formed  this  body,  which  organized  under  the 
presidency  of  William  White,  with  the  Rev.  Da- 
vid Griffith,  of  Virginia — Washington's  friend 
and  rector — as  Secretary.  It  is  safe  to  assert 
that  whatever  may  have  been  the  results  of 
this  meeting,  the  rector  and  representatives  of 
Christ  Church,  Philadelphia,  certainly  shaped 


86         EARLY   AMERICAN   PRAYER  BOOKS. 

its  measures  and  largely  influenced  its  decis- 
ions. Within  these  very  walls,  consecrated  to 
Church  and  country — where,  a  year  before,  the 
first  ecclesiastical  convention  or  council  com- 
posed of  laymen  as  well  as  clergymen  known 
in  ecclesiastical  history  had  convened,  it  was 
fitting  that  the  organization  of  the  Church 
at  large  should  be  attempted.  In  this  ven- 
erable church,  after  deliberations  and  dis- 
cussions occupying  the  careful  thought  and 
the  earnest  prayer  of  some  of  the  foremost  men 
of  the  time  in  Church  and  State,  the  foun- 
dations of  the  autonomous  American  Church 
were  laid  broad  and  deep.  On  these  founda- 
tions was  wisely,  firmly,  prayerfully,  built  the 
City  of  our  God.  Of  these  shapely  stones  was 
erected  the  fair  structure,  compactly  fashioned, 
of  the  American  Church.  Within  Christ 
Church  walls,  and  under  the  overarching  roof 
of  this  sacred  fane,  the  corner-stone  of  our  ec- 
clesiastical system  was  laid. 

The  Convention  of  1785  ratified  and  adopted 
the  alterations  of  which  we  have  already 
spoken,  as  required  by  the  changed  conditions 
of  civil  affairs.  But  while  this  was  the  limit 
of  its  liturgical  revision,  so  far  as  any  formal 
or  authoritative  legislation  was  concerned,  the 
Convention  at  the  very  outset  assigned  to  the 
committee  appointed  to  report  the  alterations 


EARLY   AMERICAN   PRAYER  B00K8.         87 

contemplated  by  the  fourth  fundamental  prin- 
ciple, adopted  by  the  New  York  meeting  in 
1874,  the  consideration  of  "such  further  alter- 
ations in  the  liturgy  as  may  bo  advisable  for 
this  Convention  to  recommend  to  the  consid- 
eration of  the  Church  here  represented."  The 
names  of  this  committee  are  those  of  the  lead- 
ing churchmen  of  the  time.  The  clergymen 
were  Provoost,  of  New  York,  afterward  bishop; 
Abraham  Beach,  of  New  Jersey,  one  of  the 
earliest  to  move  in  the  matter  of  the  organ- 
ization of  the  American  Church ;  White,  of 
Pennsylvania,  whose  duties  as  president  of  the 
Convention  practically  prevented  his  service 
on  the  committee  ;  Wharton,  of  Delaware,  the 
first  convert  of  the  American  Church  from 
the  Roman  obedience  ;  William  Smith,  removed 
from  the  charge  of  the  College  and  Academy  of 
Philadelphia,  and  now  President  of  Washing- 
ton College,  Chestertown,  Md.,  and  Bishop- 
elect  of  the  Church  in  that  State;  Griffith, 
afterward  Bishop-elect  of  Virginia ;  and  Pur- 
cell,  a  brilliant  but  erratic  clergyman  of  South 
Carolina.  Of  the  laity  there  were  the  Hon. 
James  Duane,ofNew  York,  a  patriot  and  states- 
man ;  Patrick  Dennis,  of  New  Jersey,  a  man  of 
character  and  note  ;  Richard  Peters,  of  Penn- 
sylvania, a  scholar,  a  jurist,  and  a  vestryman 
of  Christ  Church  ;  James  Sykes,  of  Delaware, 


88         EARLY   AMERICAN   PRAYER  BOOKS. 

who  had  won  distinction  in  the  war ;  Dr. 
Thomas  Craddock,  of  Maryland,  a  man  of 
high  character  and  wide  influence ;  John 
Page,  one  of  Virginia's  most  noted  sons ;  and 
the  Hon.  Jacob  Read,  of  South  Carolina,  a 
leading  patriot  and  publicist  of  his  native 
State. 

The  pages  of  the  Journal  contain  little  in- 
formation as  to  the  debates  in  committee 
or  in  Convention  attending  the  preparation 
of  what  is  known  in  liturgical  history  as 
the  "Proposed  Book."  Bishop  White,  in 
his  Memoirs  of  the  Church,  adds  but  brief 
details  to  the  scanty  information  which  may 
be  gathered  incidentally  from  the  manuscript 
memoranda  and  the  unpublished  or  printed 
correspondence  of  the  time.  The  changes 
finally  agreed  upon,  comprising  a  thorough 
review  of  the  Liturgy  and  Articles  of  Religion, 
were  "proposed  and  recommended  "  for  adop- 
tion at  a  subsequent  Convention.  The  altera- 
tions were  reported  to  the  committee  we  have 
named  by  a  sub-committee,  of  which  the  Eev. 
Dr.  William  Smith  was  the  leading  spirit. 
We  have  the  testimony  of  Bishop  White  that 
they  were  not  reconsidered  in  the  committee 
to  which  they  were  reported,  and  that  even  on 
their  presentation  in  Convention  "  there  were 
but  few  points  canvassed  with  any  material 


IARLY  AMERICAN   PRAYER  BOOKS.        89 

difference  of  opinion."  They  were  chiefly  the 
work  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  William  Smith,  whose 
preeminent  part  in  this  task  of  revision  re- 
ceived the  grateful  acknowledgments  of  the 
Convention.  To  him,  in  connection  with  the 
Rev.  Drs.  White  and  Wharton,  the  publication 
of  the  Proposed  Book  was  assigned.  A  wide 
liberty  in  the  matter  of  further  emendations 
or  corrections  was  entrusted  to,  or  certainly 
exercised  by,  the  committee,  and  the  published 
correspondence  of  its  members — carefully  pre- 
served by  Smith  and  issued  within  the  last 
few  years  by  authority  of  the  General  Conven- 
tion— is  the  chief  source  of  our  knowledge  of 
the  principles  guiding  the  proposed  revision, 
and  the  changes  adopted  as  the  volume  passed 
through  the  press. 

With  only  marginal  notes  of  the  omissions 
and  additions  which  had  been  approved  ;  cor- 
recting in  manuscript  the  English  books 
already  in  use,  and  with  the  manuscript 
schedule  of  changes  suggested  and  proposed — 
a  document  still  extant,  and  in  its  cramped 
chirography,  with  all  its  interlineations,  cor- 
rections, erasures,  fac-similed  as  one  of  our 
earliest  liturgical  authorities — the  Convention, 
as  a  body,  concluded  its  work  of  revision.  There 
was  no  time  or  opportunity  during  the  progress 
of  the  work  of  revision  by  the  Convention,  for 


90         EARLY  AMERICAN  PRAYER  BOOKS. 

putting  these  changes  authoritatively  in  print. 
Still,  the  Daily  Morning  Service,  as  proposed 
by  the  committee,  was  used  on  the  closing  day 
of  the  Convention.  The  Journal  records,  un- 
der date  of  Friday,  October  7,  1785,  as  fol- 
lows : 

"  The  Convention  met,  according  to  adjourn- 
ment, and  attended  Divine  Service  in  Christ 
Church  ;  when  the  Liturgy,  as  altered,  was 
read  by  the  Eev.  Dr.  White,  and  a  suitable 
sermon  was  preached  by  the  Eev.  Dr.  Smith, 
after  which  the  Convention  adjourned,  etc." 
For  this  sermon  Dr.  Smith  received  the  thanks 
of  the  Convention.  In  referring  to  the  work  of 
revision,  he  alludes  in  his  discourse  to  the  work 
of  the  Convention  as  that  "  of  taking  up  our 
Liturgy  or  Public  Service  where  our  former 
venerable  Reformers  had  been  obliged  to  leave 
it ;  and  of  proposing  to  the  Church  at  large 
such  further  alterations  and  improvements  as 
the  length  of  time,  the  progress  in  manners 
and  civilization,  the  increase  and  diffusion  of 
charity  and  toleration  among  all  Christian  de- 
nominations, and  other  circumstances  (some 
of  them  peculiar  to  our  situation  among  the 
highways  and  hedges  of  this  new  world)  seem 
to  have  rendered  absolutely  necessary." 

In  this  hasty  revision,  as  adopted  in  Con- 
vention or   published    to    the  world    by  the 


EARLY   AMERICAN   PRAYER  BOOKS.         91 

Committee,  additional  sentences  were  prefixed 
to  the  Order  for  Morning  and  Evening  Prayer ; 
the  word  "  Absolution  "  was  omitted  from  the 
rubrics  in  the  Daily  Office ;  grammatical 
changes  were  made  in  the  Lord's  Prayer ;  the 
use  of  the  Gloria  Patri  was  limited  to  its 
recital  at  the  end  of  the  "  Reading  Psalms ; " 
in  the  Te  Deum  in  place  of  "  honourable  "  was 
substituted  "adorable,  true,  and  only  Son," 
and  for  the  phrase  "didst  not  abhor  the 
Virgin's  womb"  was  inserted  "did6t  humble 
Thyself  to  be  born  of  a  pure  Virgin;"  the 
choice  of  Psalms  and  Lessons  was  left  at  the 
discretion  of  the  minister;  in  the  Apostles' 
Creed  the  article  "  He  descended  into  hell "  was 
omitted;  the  Nicene  and  Athanasian  Creeds 
were  omitted ;  the  suffrages  after  the  bidding  to 
prayer  were  abbreviated ;  the  lesser  Litany  was 
shortened  ;  for  archaic  words  modern  equiva- 
lents were  substituted;  verbal  changes  were 
made  in  the  various  Offices;  parents  were 
allowed  to  be  sponsors  ;  the  omission  of  the  sign 
of  the  cross  in  baptisms,  when  particularly 
desired,  was  authorized  ;  the  phrases  "I  plight 
thee  my  troth,"  and  "With  my  body  I  thee 
worship, "  and  "  pledged  their  troth  either  to 
other"  in  the  Marriage  Service  were  omitted  ; 
in  the  Burial  Office  the  restriction  as  to  the  use 
of  the  service  in  the  case  of  those  unbaptized 


92         EARLY  AMERICAN  PRAYER  BOOKS. 

was  removed ;  the  form  of  absolution  in  the 
Visitation  Office  was  omitted  and  the  "declara- 
tion" in  the  Daily  Offices  substituted  in  its 
place;  a  form  of  prayer,  etc.,  for  prisoners, 
agreed  upon  by  the  Irish  archbishops,  bishops, 
and  clergy  in  1711,  was  adopted  with  modifica- 
tions, such  as  the  substitution  of  the  "  declara- 
tion "  for  the  absolution,  and  the  omission  of 
the  short  collect,  "0  Saviour  of  the  world," 
etc. ;  in  the  Catechism  the  reply  to  the  question, 
"When  did  you  receive  this  name?"  was 
changed  as  follows :  u  I  received  it  in  baptism, 
whereby  I  became  a  member  of  the  Christian 
Church ; n  instead  of  the  words  "  verily,  and 
indeed  taken"  in  the  explanation  of  the  sacra- 
ments, was  substituted  the  phrase  ' '  spiritually 
taken ; "  the  number  of  the  sacraments  was 
expressly  limited  to  "two,  Baptism  and  the 
Lord's  Supper ; "  a  special  prayer  was  substi- 
tuted to  be  used  after  the  General  Thanksgiving 
instead  of  the  Service  for  the  Churching  of 
Women  ;  the  Commination  Office  was  omitted, 
the  three  collects  being  placed  among  the  occa- 
sional prayers;  twenty  only  of  the  XXXIX. 
Articles  were  retained,  and  these  were  pruned 
and  modified  in  their  language  ;  for  the  Psalter 
there  were  inserted  selections  arranged  for  the 
morning  and  evening  services  for  thirty  days ; 
some  of  the  Psalms  were  wholly  omitted  and 


\RLY  AMERICAN   PRAYER  BOOKS. 

others  considerably  abbreviated,  the  design  be- 
ing to  obviate  the  necessity  of  reading  in  public 
the  "  imprecatory  "  passages;  a  service  was  pic- 
pared  for  the  Fourth  of  July  ;  eighty-four  selec- 
tions of  Psalms  in  metro  were  added,  and  fifty- 
one  hymns ;  four  leaves  of  tunes,  with  the  notes 
engraved,  were  added  at  the  close  of  the  work. 
The  title  of  this  rare  volume,  of  which  four 
thousand  copies  were  issued,  but  of  which  only 
a  few  still  exist,  is  as  follows  : 

"  The  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  And  Admin- 
istration of  the  Sacraments,  And  other  Rites 
and  Ceremonies,  As  revised  and  proposed  to  the 
Use  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  At  a 
Convention  of  the  said  Church  in  the  States 
of  New- York,  New-Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Dela- 
ware, Maryland,  Virginia,  And  South-Carolina, 
Held  in  Philadelphia,  from  September  27th  to 
October  7th,  1785.  Philadelphia  :  Printed 
by  Hall  and  Sellers  :  MDCCLXXXVI." 

This  work  was  reprinted  in  London  in  1789, 
and  was  highly  praised  in  a  critical  notice  in 
the  Monthly  Review  (vol.  80,  p.  337).  It  was 
reprinted  in  the  Rev.  Peter  Hall's  ReliquicB 
Liturgicce,  and  within  the  last  few  years  again 
and  again  as  one  of  the  documents  of  the 
"  Reformed  Episcopal  Church."  The  original 
is  one  of  the  costliest  as  well  as  rarest  of  the 
ecclesiastical  "  Americana  "  of  the  period. 


94         EARLY  AMERICAN  PRAYER  BOOKS. 

The  Proposed  Book,  after  many  and  vexa- 
tious delays,  at  length  appeared  in  print.  Its 
reception,  complete  and  in  binding,  is  recorded 
by  Dr.  Smith  in  a  letter  addressed  to  Dr. 
White  under  date  of  April  29,  1786.  Its 
publication  awakened  no  enthusiasm,  and  it 
was  soon  evident,  to  quote  the  testimony  of 
Bishop  White,  u  that,  in  regard  to  the  Liturgy, 
the  labors  of  the  Convention  had  not  reached 
their  object."  Even  the  committee  entrusted 
with  the  preparation  of  the  volume  for  the 
press  felt  and  confessed  the  imperfection  of 
their  work.  u  We  can  only,  in  the  different 
States,"  writes  Dr.  William  Smith  to  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Parker,  of  Massachusetts,  under  date  of 
April  17,  1786,  u  receive  the  book  for  tempo- 
rary use  till  our  churches  are  organized  and 
the  book  comes  again  under  review  of  Con- 
ventions having  their  bishops,  etc.,  as  the 
primitive  rules  of  episcopacy  require."  South 
Carolina,  Virginia,  Maryland,  and  Pennsyl- 
vania proposed  amendments  to  the  com- 
mittee's work.  No  Convention  met  in  Dela- 
ware, and  consequently  no  action  respecting 
the  book  was  taken.  New  Jersey  formally 
rejected  the  proposed  revision,  and  memori- 
alized the  General  Convention  of  1786  with 
respect  to  "  the  unseasonableness  and  irregu- 
larity" of  the  alterations  made  by  the  com- 


EARLY   AMERICAN   PRATER  BOOKS.         95 

mittee  of  publication  without  the  "revision 
and  express  approbation  of  the  Convention 
itself. " 

The  Convention  of  New  York  postponed 
the  question  of  the  ratification  of  the  Proposed 
Book,  "  out  of  respect  to  the  English  bishops, 
and  because  the  minds  of  the  people  are  not 
yet  sufficiently  informed. "  The  prospect  of  the 
success  of  the  efforts  of  the  Convention  of  1785, 
for  securing  the  episcopate  in  the  English  line 
of  succession,  served  materially  to  hinder  the 
ratification  and  general  use  of  the  Proposed 
Book.  The  objections  urged  by  Bishop  Sea- 
bury  and  the  New  England  Churchmen  to  its 
adoption  seemed  cogent  and  convincing  when 
echoed  by  the  English  archbishops  and  bish- 
ops. Some  of  the  most  glaring  defects  in  this 
hasty  and  ill-considered  revision  were  obviated 
by  the  action  of  the  "Wilmington  Conven- 
tion of  1786.  The  mutilation  of  the  Apos- 
tles' Creed,  and  the  rejection  of  the  Nicene 
Symbol  were  now  no  longer  insisted  upon.  The 
omitted  clause,  "  He  descended  into  hell,"  was 
restored  to  the  Apostles'  Creed,  and  the  Nicene 
Creed  was  replaced  in  the  Daily  Offices.  The 
temper  of  the  times  was  becoming  conservative. 
Catholic  truth,  as  held  by  Seabury  and  the 
Churchmen  at  the  North,  was  no  longer  de- 
cried.    The  crudity  and  incompleteness  of  the 


96         EARLY  AMERICAN  PRAYER  BOOKS. 

proposed  revision  was  confessed  by  all.  It 
practically  died  in  the  effort  that  gave  it  birth. 
The  action  of  the  Wilmington  Convention 
in  removing  the  objections  of  the  English  arch- 
bishops and  bishops  to  imparting  the  succes- 
sion to  the  American  Church,  sealed  the  fate 
of  the  Proposed  Book.  Its  use  had  never  been 
general,  and  in  all  but  a  few  churches  it  was 
now  forever  laid  aside.  In  New  England,  its 
adoption  by  Trinity  Church,  Boston,  was  only 
temporary.  At  Trinity,  Newport,  R.  L,  the 
attempt  to  introduce  it,  we  are  told  by  Bishop 
Seabury,  was  productive  of  consequences 
threatening  the  very  life  of  the  parish.  Con- 
necticut never  admitted  its  use  in  any  of  its 
churches,  and  in  New  York  the  influence  of 
Provoost  was  insufficient  to  secure  its  general 
introduction.  It  was  used  for  a  time  in 
Christ  Church,  Philadelphia,  as  in  numerous 
churches  in  the  Middle  and  Southern  States, 
but  its  omissions  and  alterations  were  gen- 
erally distasteful,  and  it  was,  in  all  cases, 
after  a  brief  time  laid  aside.  The  clergy  re- 
turned to  the  use  of  their  old  office  books, 
the  changes  being  noted  in  manuscript,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  Christ  Church  Prayer  Books 
of  the  day,  still  religiously  preserved,  and 
showing  the  alterations  made  to  render  the 
service  conformable  to  our  civil  independence 


EARLY   AMERICAN   PRAYER   BOOKS.         97 

and    the    constitutions    of    the    independent 
States. 

On  the  eve  of  the  Convention  of  1789,  under 
date  of  June  20  of  that  year,  Bishop  Seabury 
gave  fully  and  without  reserve  his  criticisms  on 
the  Proposed  Book  to  his  episcopal  brother  of 
Pennsylvania : 

Was  it  not  that  it  would  run  this  letter  to  an  unrea- 
sonable length,  I  would  take  the  liberty  to  mention  at 
large  the  objections  here  made  to  the  Prayer  Book  pub- 
lished at  Philadelphia.  I  will  confine  myself  to  a  few, 
and  even  these  I  would  not  mention  but  from  a  hope  they 
will  be  obviated  by  your  Convention.  The  mutilating 
the  Psalms  is  supposed  to  be  an  unwarrantable  liberty, 
and  such  as  was  never  before  taken  with  Holy  Scriptures 
by  any  Church.  It  destroys  that  beautiful  chain  of 
prophecy  that  runs  through  them,  and  turns  their 
application  from  Messiah  and  the  Church  to  the 
temporal  state  and  concerns  of  individuals.  By  dis- 
carding the  word  Absolution,  and  making  no  mention 
of  Regeneration  in  Baptism,  you  appear  to  give  up 
those  points,  and  to  open  the  door  to  error  and  delusion. 
The  excluding  of  the  Nicene  and  Athanasian  Creeds  has 
alarmed  the  steady  friends  of  our  Church,  lest  the 
doctrine  of  Christ's  Divinity  should  go  out  with  them. 
If  the  doctrine  of  those  Creeds  be  offensive,  we  are 
sorry  for  it,  and  shall  hold  ourselves  so  much  the  more 
bound  to  retain  them.  If  what  are  called  the  dam- 
natory clauses  in  the  latter  be  the  objection,  cannot 
these  clauses  be  supported  by  Scripture?  Whether  they 
can  or  cannot,  why  not  discard  these  clauses,  and 
retain  the  doctrinal  part  of  the  Creed?  The  leaving 
7 


98         EARLY  AMERICAN   PRAYER  BOOKS. 

out  the  descent  into  Hell  from  the  Apostles'  Creed 
seems  to  be  of  dangerous  consequence.  Have  we  a 
right  to  alter  the  analogy  of  faith  handed  down  to  us 
by  the  Holy  Catholic  Church  ?  And  if  we  do  alter  it, 
how  will  it  appear  that  we  are  the  same  Church  which 
subsisted  in  primitive  times  ?  The  article  of  the 
descent,  I  suppose,  was  put  into  the  Creed  to  ascertain 
Christ's  perfect  humanity,  that  he  has  a  human  soul, 
in  opposition  to  those  heretics  who  denied  it  and 
affirmed  that  this  body  was  actuated  by  the  divinity. 
For  if  when  he  died,  and  his  body  was  laid  in  the  grave, 
his  soul  went  to  the  place  of  departed  spirits,  then  he 
had  a  human  soul  as  well  as  a  body,  and  was  very 
and  perfect  man.  The  Apostles'  Creed  seems  to  have 
been  the  Creed  of  the  Western  Church  ;  the  Nicene  of 
the  Eastern,  and  the  Athanasian  to  be  designed  to 
ascertain  the  Catholic  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  against 
all  opposers.  And  it  always  appeared  to  me,  that  the 
design  of  the  Church  of  England,  in  retaining  the 
three  Creeds,  was  to  show  that  she  did  retain  the  anal- 
ogy of  the  Catholic  faith,  in  common  with  the  East- 
ern and  Western  Church,  and  in  opposition  to  those 
who  denied  the  Trinity  of  Persons  in  the  Unity  of 
the  Divine  Essence.  Why  any  departure  should  be 
made  from  the  good  and  pious  example  I  am  yet  to 
seek. 

There  seems  in  your  book  a  dissonance  between  the 
offices  of  Baptism  and  Confirmation.  In  the  latter 
there  is  a  renewal  of  a  vow,  which  in  the  former  does 
not  appear  to  have  been  explicitly  made.  Something 
of  the  same  discordance  appears  in  the  Catechism. 

Our  regard  for  primitive  practice  makes  us  exceed- 
ingly grieved  that  you  have  not  absolutely  retained 
the  sign  of  the  Cross  in  Baptism.     When  I  consider 


EARLY    AMERICAN    PRAYER   B00K8.         99 

the  practice  of  the  ancient  Church,  before  Popery  had 
a  being,  I  cannot  think  the  Church  of  England  justifi- 
able in  giving  up  the  sign  of  the  Cross,  where  it  was 
retained  by  the  first  Prayer  Book  of  Edward  the  VI. 
Her  motive  may  have  been  good  ;  but  good  motives 
will  not  justify  wrong  actions.  The  concessions  she 
has  made  in  giving  up  several  primitive,  and  I  sup- 
pose, apostolical  usages,  to  gratify  the  humours  of 
fault-finding  men,  shows  the  inefficacy  of  such  con- 
duct. She  has  learned  wisdom  from  her  experiences. 
Why  should  not  we  also  take  a  lessou  in  her  school  ? 
If  the  humour  be  pursued  of  giving  up  points  on  every 
demand,  in  fifty  years  we  shall  scarce  have  the  name 
of  Christianity  left.  For  God's  sake,  my  dear  sir,  let 
us  remember  that  it  is  the  particular  business  of  the 
Bishops  of  Christ's  Church  to  preserve  it  pure  and 
undefiled,  in  faith  and  practice,  according  to  the  model 
left  by  apostolic  practice.  And  may  God  give  you  grace 
and  courage  to  act  accordingly  ! 

In  your  Burial  Office,  the  hope  of  a  future  resurrec- 
tion to  eternal  .life  is  too  faintly  expressed,  and  the 
acknowledgment  of  an  intermediate  state,  between 
death  and  the  resurrection,  seems  to  be  entirely  thrown 
out ;  though,  that  this  was  a  Catholic,  primitive  and 
apostolical  doctrine,  will  be  denied  by  none  who  attend 
to  this  point. 

The  Articles  seem  to  be  altered  to  little  purpose. 
The  doctrines  are  neither  more  clearly  expressed  nor 
better  guarded  ;  nor  are  the  objections  to  the  old  Arti- 
cles obviated.  And,  indeed,  this  seems  to  have  been 
the  case  with  several  other  alterations  :  they  appear  to 
have  been  made  for  alteration's  sake,  and  at  least  have 
not  mended  the  matter  they  aimed  at. 

That  the  most  exceptionable  part  of  the  English  book 


100      EARLY  AMERICAN"  PRAYER  BOOKS. 

is  the  Communion  Office  may  be  proved  by  a  number  of 
very  respectable  names  among  her  clergy.  The  grand 
fault  in  that  Office  is  the  deficiency  of  a  more  formal 
Oblation  of  the  Elements,  and  of  the  Invocation  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  to  sanctify  and  bless  them.  The  Consecra- 
tion is  made  to  consist  merely  in  the  Priest's  laying  his 
hands  on  the  elements  and  pronouncing,  "  This  is  my 
Body"  etc.,  which  words  are  not  consecration  at  all, 
nor  were  they  addressed  by  Christ  to  the  Father,  but 
were  declarative  to  the  Apostles.  This  is  so  exactly 
symbolizing  with  the  Church  of  Rome  in  an  error; — an 
error,  too,  on  which  the  absurdity  of  Transubstantia" 
tion  is  built, — that  nothing  but  having  fallen  into  the 
same  error,  themselves,  could  have  prevented  the  en- 
emies of  the  Church  from  casting  it  in  her  teeth.  The 
efficacy  of  Baptism,  of  Confirmation,  of  Orders,  is  as- 
cribed to  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  his  energy  is  implored 
for  that  purpose ;  and  why  he  should  not  be  in- 
volved in  the  consecration  of  the  Eucharist,  especially 
as  all  the  old  Liturgies  are  full  to  the  point,  I  cannot 
conceive.  It  is  much  easier  to  account  for  the  altera- 
tions of  the  first  Liturgy  of  Edward  the  VI.,  than  to 
justify  them  ;  and  as  I  have  been  told  there  is  a  vote 
on  the  minutes  of  your  Convention,  anno  1786,  I 
believe,  for  the  revision  of  this  matter,  I  hope  it  will 
be  taken  up,  and  that  God  will  raise  up  some  able  and 
worthy  advocate  for  this  primitive  practice,  and  make 
you  and  the  Convention  the  instruments  of  restoring  it 
to  His  Church  in  America.  It  would  do  you  more 
honour  in  the  world  and  contribute  more  to  the  union  of 
the  Churches  than  any  other  alterations  you  can  make, 
and  would  restore  the  Holy  Eucharist  to  its  ancient 
dignity  and  efficacy.  .  .  . 
Hoping  that  all  obstructions  may  be  removed  by  your 


EARLY   AMERICAN   PRAYER  BOOKS.      101 

Convention,  and  beseeching  Almighty  God  to  direct  us 
in  this  great  work  of  establishing  and  building  up  the 
Church  in  peace  and  unity,   truth  and  charity,   and 
purity,        I  remain  with  great  regard  and  esteem, 
Your  affectionate  Brother  and  very  humble  Servant, 

Samuel  Bp.  Connect.1 

No  more  able  or  convincing  arguments  could 
have  been  prepared.  The  words  of  Seabury  in 
this  critique  are  worthy  of  the  closest  reading, 
the  most  careful  consideration.  They  give  us 
in  calm  and  temperate  language  the  plea  of  the 
New  England  churches,  and  their  spiritual 
head,  for  the  primitive  faith  and  order,  and  the 
Catholic  use. 

In  1789  the  General  Convention  of  the 
churches  in  the  Middle  and  Southern  States 
again  convened  in  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia, 
but  the  desire  for  unity  dominated  in  every  mind 
the  wish  for  liturgical  changes  or  omissions. 
To  the  episcopate  of  Seabury,  secured  in  1784 
from  the  Catholic  remainder  of  the  Church  in 
Scotland,  had  been  added  the  English  succes- 
sion conferred  on  White  and  Provoost  at  Lam- 
beth, in  1787.  The  churches  of  the  New 
England  States  recognized  Seabury  as  their 
head.      The  churches  of  the   Middle   States 

1  First  printed  in  Perry's  Hist.  Notes  and  Documents, 
pp.  386-388,  forming  Vol.  III.  of  The  Reprint  of  the 
Early  Journals,  1785-1835. 


102      EARLY  AMERICAN  PRATER  BOOKS. 

and  those  at  the  southward  were  united  in 
their  acceptance  of  the  episcopate  as  received 
from  the  Mother  Church  of  England.  To 
bring  together  the  long-parted  and  oft-times 
contending  Churchmen  of  the  North  and 
South  was  the  desire  of  well-nigh  every  heart. 
Through  the  mediatorial  offices  of  Parker, 
of  Massachusetts — seconding  and  furthering 
measures  recommended  and  approved,  if  not 
first  suggested,  by  William  White — this  blessed 
union  and  comprehension  were  happily  effected. 
The  steps  taken  at  the  first  Convention  of  1789, 
held,  as  so  many  of  our  noteworthy  ecclesiastical 
assemblages  have  been  from  the  first,  in  Christ 
Church,  Philadelphia,  resulted,  on  the  occasion 
of  the  second  gathering  of  the  Church  in  Con- 
vention in  the  same  place  and  the  same  year,  in 
the  welcoming  of  Seabury  and  the  New  England 
deputies  to  what  was  now  in  its  fullest,  truest 
sense  a  General  Convention  of  the  Church 
in  the  United  States.  In  the  State  House,  in 
the  apartments  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania,  to  which  the 
General  Convention  had  adjourned  the  day  be- 
fore, on  Friday,  October  2, 1789,  by  the  signing 
of  the  amended  Constitution,  changed  with 
this  end  in  view,  by  Seabury  and  the  New  Eng- 
land deputies,  the  American  Church  was  at 
length  at  unity  in  herself. 


EARLY    AMERICAN    PRAYER   BOOKS.       103 

The  revision  of  the  Liturgy  was  now  a 
primary  duty.  The  Proposed  Book  does  not 
appear  as  a  factor  in  the  revision  of  1789, 
which  gave  us  the  Prayer  Book  we  now,  after 
a  century's  use,  lay  aside  for  the  Standard  of 
1892.  Bishop  White  had  also  written  to  Sea- 
bury  under  date  of  May  21,  1787,  that  "if  it 
should  be  thought  advisable  by  ye  general 
body  of  our  Church  to  adhere  to  y*  English 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  (ye  political  parts 
excepted),  I  shall  be  one  of  ye  first  after  y* 
appearance  of  such  a  disposition,  to  comply 
with  it  most  punctual^. 

"Further  than  this,  if  it  should  seem  y# 
more  probable  way  of  maintaining  an  agree- 
ment among  ourselves,  I  shall  use  my  best  en- 
deavours to  effect  it.  At  ye  same  time,  I  must 
candidly  express  my  opinion,  that  y*  review  of 
y*  Liturgy  would  tend  very  much  to  ya  satis- 
faction of  most  of  y*  members  of  our  com- 
munion, and  to  its  future  success  and  prosper- 
ity. The  worst  evil  which  I  apprehend  from 
a  refusal  to  review  is  this,  that  it  will  give  a 
great  advantage  to  those  who  wish  to  carry  y* 
alterations  into  essential  points  of  doctrine. 
Reviewed  it  will  unquestionably  be  in  some 
places,  and  y*  only  way  to  prevent  its  being 
done  by  men  of  y*  above  description,  is  y* 
taking  it  up  as  a  general  business." 


104      EARLY    AMERICAN    PRAYER   BOOKS. 

Seabury  had  written  to  Parker,  of  Boston, 
under  date  of  February  13,  1788:  "I  never 
thought  there  was  any  heterodoxy  in  the 
Southern  Prayer  Book,  but  I  do  think  the  true 
doctrine  is  left  too  unguarded,  and  that  the 
offices  are — some  of  them — lowered  to  such  a 
degree  that  they  will,  in  a  great  measure,  lose 
their  influence. " 

It  was,  therefore,  with  the  full  approval  of 
the  men  who  certainly  occupied  representative 
positions  in  the  churches  both  of  the  Northern, 
the  Middle,  and  the  Southern  States,  that  the 
u  Proposed  Book  "  was  laid  upon  the  shelf  at  the 
meeting  in  1789.  The  New  England  deputies, 
under  the  lead  of  Dr.  Parker,  of  Massachu- 
setts, who  voiced  the  views  and  wishes  of  Sea- 
bury,  "  proposed  that  the  English  book  should 
be  the  ground  of  the  proceedings  held,  without 
any  reference  to  that  set  out  and  proposed  in 
1785."  Others  contended  that  a  liturgy  should 
be  framed  de  novo,  "  without  any  reference  to 
any  existing  book,  although  with  liberty  to 
take  from  any,  whatever  the  Convention  should 
think  fit."  The  result  of  this  discussion,  so 
far  as  the  House  of  Deputies  was  concerned, 
is  seen  in  "  the  wording  of  the  resolves  as  they 
stand  in  the  Journal,  in  which  the  different 
committees  are  appointed,  to  prepare  a  Morn- 
ing and  Evening  Prayer,  to  prepare  a  Litany, 


EARLY    AMERICAN    PRAY1.R   BOOKS.       105 

to  prepare  a  Communion  Service/'  and  the 
same  in  regard  to  the  other  offices  of  the  Prayer 
Book.  The  phraseology  employed  in  1785  was 
to  alter  the  services  respectively.  The  latitude 
of  change  this  action  of  the  House  of  Deputies 
seemed  to  justify,  was  essentially  modified  by 
the  general  disposition  of  the  Convention  to 
vary  the  new  book  as  little  as  possible  from  the 
English  model,  and  the  further  circumstance 
that  the  House  of  Bishops  u  adopted  a  contrary 
course." 

To  -this  House  of  Bishops,  meeting  in  the 
Committee  Room  of  the  House  of  Assembly, 
and  later,  when  "the  public  service"  required 
the  use  of  this  apartment,  in  the  Apparatus 
Room  of  the  College  of  Philadelphia,  after  di- 
vine service  each  day  in  Christ  Church  or  at  the 
College  Chapel,  and  consisting  only  of  Seabury 
as  Presiding  Bishop,  and  William  White — Pro- 
voost  being  absent — is  due  much  of  the  conserv- 
atism and  Catholicity  of  the  revision  of  1789 
as  contrasted  with  the  abortive  attempt  of  1785. 
The  alterations,  other  than  those  of  a  political 
nature  which  had  been  earlier  agreed  upon,  were 
mainly  verbal,  with  the  omission  of  repetitions. 
Additions  were  made  to  the  Occasional  Prayers ; 
Selections  of  Psalms  were  inserted  ;  and  the 
Office  for  the  Visitation  of  Prisoners,  from 
the  Irish  Prayer  Book,  was  retained.    A  Form  of 


106      EARLY  AMERICAN    PRAYER  BOOKS. 

Prayer  and  Thanksgiving  for  the  Fruits  of  the 
Earth  was  adopted — thus,  first  of  all  Christian 
bodies  in  this  land,  nationalizing  the  Thanks- 
giving observance.  Forms  of  Prayer  for  Family 
Use,  condensed  from  those  of  Bishop  Gibson, 
were  inserted.  Besides  these  changes,  Bishop 
Seabury  obtained  the  restoration  to  the  Prayer 
of  Consecration  in  the  Holy  Communion  Office, 
of  the  Oblation  and  Invocation  found  in  King 
Edward  VI.'s  first  Prayer  Book  and  retained 
in  the  Scotch  Office. 

In  this  notable  improvement  of  the  Liturgy, 
Seabury  secured  for  the  American  revision  of 
1789  a  closer  conformity  in  the  Eucharist ic 
Office  to  primitive  models,  and  fully  met  the 
requirement  of  the  Concordat  he  had  signed 
with  the  Scottish  bishops  on  his  elevation  to 
the  episcopate. 

It  is  thus  that  there  has  come  down  to  us  from 
the  primitive  days,  the  prayers  of  the  saints,  in 
the  form  and  manner  we  have  used  them  in 
our  public  devotions  for  a  hundred  years.  Ours 
is  the  heritage  of  prayer  coming  from  the  his- 
toric past,  and  the  very  history  of  revisions 
and  changes  has  an  interest  and  value  all 
will  confess.  ' '  The  prayers  of  my  mother 
the  Church,"  cried  the  dying  George  Her- 
bert— "there  are  no  prayers  like  hers."  And 
we,  conscious  of  what  was  secured  to  us  by  the 


EARLY    AMERICAN    PRAYER   BOOKS.      107 

men  and  measures  of  1789,  may  thank  God  for 
the  gift  to  us  of  that  incomparable  book  of 
devotion  which,  with  the  slight  changes  and  en- 
richments of  our  own  revision,  will,  as  we  fondly 
believe,  be  to  us  in  the  years  to  come  what  our 
fathers'  book  of  1789  has  been  to  us  for  the  first 
century  of  our  independent  life.  For  the  re- 
vision of  1789 — both  for  what  it  was  and  for 
what  it  superseded — we  may  ever  thank  our 
own  and  our  fathers'  God. 


THE  PRAYER  BOOK  ENRICHED. 


THE  PRAYER  BOOK  ENRICHED. 


The  subject  which  is  assigned  to  me  is  in  a 
way  the  easiest,  and  in  a  way  the  most  diffi- 
cult, of  the  four  subjects.  It  is  the  easiest,  be- 
cause it  deals  with  questions  so  recent  and  so 
fresh  in  all  our  minds  as  to  require  only  the 
recall  of  things  with  which  we  are  virtually 
familiar.  It  is  the  most  difficult,  because  it 
lacks  the  charm  of  antiquarian  research,  and 
has  to  do  rather  with  surface  matters  than 
with  questions  that  lie  in  the  deeper  waters  of 
history  and  doctrine. 

It  will  be  remembered,  that  in  the  Conven- 
tion of  1880  a  resolution  was  introduced  into 
the  House  of  Deputies  in  the  following  lan- 
guage :  "Resolved,  That  a  joint  committee, 
to  consist  of  seven  bishops,  seven  presbyters, 
and  seven  laymen,  be  appointed  to  consider, 
and  to  report  to  the  next  General  Convention, 
whether,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  this  Church 
is  soon  to  enter  upon  the  second  century  of 
its  organized  existence  in  this  country,  the 
changed  conditions  of  the  national  life  do  not 
demand  certain  alterations  in  the  Book  of 


112  THE  PRAYER  BOOK  ENRICHED. 

Common  Prayer  in  the  direction  of  litur- 
gical enrichment  and  increased  flexibility  of 
use." 

It  is  a  very  striking  fact,  that  the  Conven- 
tion of  1889 — at  which  a  considerable  number 
of  changes  were  finally  adopted,  and  at  which 
all  changes  that  have  now  been  made  were 
acted  on  for  the  first  time — synchronized  en- 
tirely with  the  beginning  of  the  second  century 
of  the  organized  existence  of  the  Church  in 
this  country.  For  it  was  on  October  2d,  1889, 
the  actual  centennial  anniversary  of  the  day 
when  the  three  bishops  met  first  in  Christ 
Church,  Philadelphia,  and  organized  the  Up- 
per House  of  the  General  Convention,  that  the 
opening  service  of  the  late  General  Convention 
was  held  in  St.  George's  Church,  New  York, 
and  the  two  houses  met  for  organization. 

And  it  is  a  coincidence  not  to  be  omitted 
from  our  thoughts,  that  the  completed  Prayer 
Book  is  established  in  what  is  called  the  "  Co- 
lumbian "  year  :  so  that  it  becomes  us,  I  think, 
to  bear  in  mind  that  a  service  in  the  English 
tongue,  after  the  manner  of  the  English 
Church,  was  the  first  that  consecrated  to  God 
the  soil  of  this  North  American  continent.  In 
the  name  of  his  sovereign,  Henry  VII.,  Sebas- 
tian Cabot  took  possession  of  the  new-found 
land,  which  he  called  Prima  Vista— the  first 


THE   PRAYER   BOOK   ENRICHED.  113 

seen — and  held  a  religious  service  there,  and 
sailed  from  that  northern  point  perhaps  as  far 
as  Florida, -the  Prima- Vera  lands  of  constant 
Spring.  So  that  neither  to  Roman  nor  to  Span- 
ish influence  in  speech  or  faith,  but  to  the 
religion  and  the  language  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
people,  are  due  the  opening  of  the  new  world 
in  which  we  live,  and  the  bringing  of  that  new 
land  into  subjection  to  Christ  our  Lord. 

It  is  inevitably  suggested  by  the  language  of 
the  resolution,  that  we  appointed  the  joint  com- 
mittee to  trace  out  the  course  of  action  along 
the  three  lines  :  the  changed  conditions  of  the 
national  life,  liturgical  enrichment,  and  in- 
creased flexibility  of  use. 

The  changed  conditions  of  our  national  life 
would  make  sufficient  theme  in  themselves. 
In  this  Columbian  year,  when  we  are  observ- 
ing that  which  approaches  most  nearly  to 
antiquity  in  this  new  world,  the  hundred 
years  of  ecclesiastical  existence  seem  com- 
paratively short.  And  yet  not  only  has  the 
national  life  grown  from  the  sparse  rootings 
of  the  great  Puritan  settlement  in  New 
England,  and  the  small  and  scattered  seed 
of  Church  of  England  people  and  Roman 
Catholics  in  Maryland  and  Virginia,  into  our 
great  and  seething  mass  of  only  partially  assim- 
ilated nationalities;  but  the  Church  herself 
8 


114  THE  PRAYER  BOOK  ENRICHED. 

has  grown  from  a  very  "  little  one,"  straggling 
with  every  possible  "hindrance  and  antagonism, 
into  a  position  where,  not  perhaps  in  numbers, 
but  certainly  in  influence  ecclesiastical  and 
religious,  and  in  power  of  both  intellect  and 
wealth,  it  is  almost  the  dominant  religious 
feature  in  our  national  life.  And  this  Church 
stands  to-day,  I  believe,  before  a  vista  of  in- 
creasing influence,  which  adds  intense  solem- 
nity to  every  action  that  is  proposed  in  regard 
to  her  formularies  of  order  and  worship.  It 
seems  to  me,  that  the  changed  conditions  of 
our  national  life,  so  far  as  they  affected  the 
action  of  the  committee  on  the  revision  of  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer,  ran  in  two  direc- 
tions. In  the  first  place,  the  time  had  come 
when  certain  timidities  that  marred  the  action 
of  the  Convention  which  set  forth  the  first 
book,  had  grown  into  the  courage  of  taking 
what  was  good  which  had  been  left  out  then, 
and  restoring  it  to  its  rightful  place.  Perhaps 
the  most  marked  illustration  of  this  was  in 
the  honesty  which  withdrew  all  right  to  omit 
from  the  old  Creed  the  article,  "  He  descended 
into  hell " ;  and  the  reconsideration  of  the 
curious  and  unreasoned  fear  which  had  omitted 
from  Evensong  the  hymn  Magnificat,  lest, 
somehow  or  other,  it  should  seem  to  imply  a 
worship  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary. 


THE   PRAYER  BOOK   ENRICHED.  115 

These  two  great  gains  in  truth  and  worship 
mark  progress  in  our  national  and  ecclesias- 
tical life.  Other  than  this,  I  do  not  think  wo 
have  accomplished  all  that  we  might  have 
done.  I  think  there  should  have  been  a 
service  appointed  for  the  Fourth  of  July,  the 
keeping  of  which  ought  certainly  to  be  ob- 
served more  generally  than  it  is,  with  more 
religious  recognition  of  the  great  Christian 
duty  of  patriotism ;  and  in  some  better  way 
than  by  the  imitation  and  importation  of  the 
barbarous  noises  of  a  barbarous  nation.  We 
have  gained  a  special  service  for  the  "Harvest 
Home " ;  I  wish  we  might  have  had  some 
prayer  for  the  country  as  well.  But  I  am  glad 
that  in  the  Evensong,  in  the  prayer  for  those 
in  authority,  we  have  got  back  the  statement 
which  impresses  upon  rulers  "  Whose  author- 
ity they  bear,"  and  upon  the  ruled,  the  recog- 
nition that  is  due  to  the  powers  which  "  are 
ordained  of  God."  The  careful  provisions  for 
dividing  and  shortening  the  services,  are  no 
unimportant  concession,  beside,  to  the  changed 
conditions  of  our  modern  life. 

It  has  been  my  privilege  to  be  associated 
with  the  work  of  the  committee  on  the  revis- 
ion of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  during  the 
twelve  years  of  its  existence,  serving  first 
under  the  always  inimitable  chairmanship  of 


116  THE   PRAYER  BOOK   ENRICHED. 

our  Presiding  Bishop,  and  afterwards  as  chair- 
man of  the  committee  since  1886.  And  I  desire 
to  bear  witness  to  the  fact,  that  the  members 
of  the  Commission  have  approached  their  work 
with  the  fullest  sense  of  its  difficulty  and  deli- 
cacy ;  with  the  deepest  possible  reverence  for 
the  marvellous  compilation  they  were  called 
to  revise  ;  and  with  an  earnest  purpose  not  to 
mingle  any  common  clay  with  its  pure  gold,  or 
to  weave  any  threads  of  coarse  and  common 
stuff  into  the  exquisite  embroidery  of  Holy 
Scripture,  and  of  words  that  have  been,  not 
only  selected  by  trained  liturgical  scholars,  but 
also  hallowed  by  the  reverent  use  of  so  many 
centuries.  We  felt  what  Stedman  has  so 
strongly  said,  that  the  ritual  of  our  Episcopal 
Prayer  Book  is  "  the  most  wonderful  symphonic 
idealization  of  human  faith, — certainly  the 
most  inclusive,  blending  in  harmonic  succes- 
sion all  the  cries  and  longings  and  laudations 
of  the  universal  human  heart  invoking  a  pater- 
nal Creator.  .  .  .  Upon  its  mystic  tide  of 
human  hope,  imagination,  prayer,  sorrows,  and 
passionate  expression  it  bears  the  worshipper 
along,  and  has  sustained  men's  souls  with  con- 
ceptions of  Deity  and  immortality  throughout 
hundreds,  yes,  thousands,  of  undoubting  years. 
.  .  .  In  various  and  constructive  beauty  as 
a  work  of  poetic  art  it  is  unparalleled    .     .     . 


THE   PRAYER  BOOK   ENRICHED.  117 

as  a  piece  of  inclusive  literature  it  has  no 
counterpart,  and  can  have  no  successor." 

The  very  first  thought  that  occupied  the 
minds  of  the  Commission  was  to  restore  lost 
treasures,  because  there  could  be  no  such  litur- 
gical enrichment  as  that  which  would  reset  old 
jewels  in  the  crown.  And  while  the  last  Com- 
mission has  not  felt  itself  bound  to  follow  out 
the  resolution  adopted  at  the  very  first  meeting 
of  the  original  Commission,  to  touch  nothing 
that  could  seem  to  affect  doctrine,  it  must  be 
plain  to  anybody  who  studies  the  result  as  it 
is  now  finally  presented,  that  neither  in  the 
way  of  diminution  nor  addition  have  any  doc- 
trinal changes  been  introduced. 

The  first  proposition  in  1880,  as  I  remember, 
struck  almost  everybody  with  a  sense  of  sus- 
picion and  alarm.  There  are  great  numbers 
of  people  in  this  world  to  whom  any  large  and 
strong  proposition  of  this  sort  suggests  at  first 
sight  one  or  the  other  of  two  things.  And  it  has 
been  rather  curious  to  notice  how  this  suspicion 
and  alarm  have  lingered  on  for  twelve  years  in 
minds  of  very  different  constitution,  and  for 
reasons  very  widely  apart ;  have  hindered  and 
hampered  more  or  less  the  progress  of  the  work, 
by  a  combination  of  entirely  opposite  opin- 
ions against  certain  phases  of  it ;  and  have 
succeeded,    not    in    preventing    the    general 


118  THE   PRAYER   BOOK   ENRICHED. 

purpose,  but  in  seriously  marring  its  perfect- 
ness. 

The  suspicion  which  haunted  the  minds  of 
many  men,  certainly  until  the  first  report  of 
the  committee  was  made,  was  that  some  secret 
gall  of  vagueness  and  vapidity  was  concealed 
under  the  language  of  the  resolution.  And  in 
spite  of  all  the  evidence  of  results,  in  spite  of 
an  acknowledgment  all  round  that  the  work 
has  been  done  in  no  narrow  and  partisan  inter- 
est, a  certain  number  of  individuals  in  the 
Church  held  aloof  for  a  long  while  from,  what 
I  believe  that  now  even  they  acknowledge  in 
the  main  to  have  been,  a  sound  progress  in  the 
direction  of  liturgical  improvement.  The 
alarm  which  filled  the  minds  (not  unnat- 
urally) of  the  most  respectable  and  venerable 
body  of  men,  to  whom  the  mere  fact  of  long 
attachment  and  association  had  so  endeared 
the  precise  shape  of  the  American  Book  of 
Common  Prayer,  that  they  could  not  brook 
the  thought  of  the  dotting  of  an  undotted  i, 
or  the  crossing  of  an  uncrossed  t,  was  that 
they  feared  the  change  would  make  unfamiliar 
the  beloved  features  of  what  had  come  to  be 
linked  in  with  all  the  holiest  memories  of  their 
lives. 

We  had  to  contend  at  first,  also,  with  a 
third  element — smaller,  but  not  therefore  less 


THE   PRAYER   BOOK    ENRICHED.  119 

loud  in  its  utterances — of  people  who  desired 
larger  and  more  sweeping  changes,  and  op- 
posed the  more  moderate  proposals  of  the 
various  committees,  in  the  hope  that  this  move- 
ment being  made  a  failure,  room  would  be 
made  for  them,  by  and  by,  to  carry  out  their 
views.  In  spite  of  all  this,  and  more  and 
more  as  the  work  went  on,  agreement  with 
wonderful  unanimity  has  been  reached  in  re- 
gard to  the  most  important  changes  which  the 
committee  proposed. 

We  owe,  I  think,  to  a  combination  of  feel- 
ings of  this  sort,  the  loss  of  certain  things 
which,  if  they  could  have  been  secured,  would 
have  made  the  book  more  perfect  than  it  is. 
I  speak  of  them  first,  because,  if  this  is  to  be 
historic  record,  I  should  be  glad  to  have  it 
known,  that  not  only  the  Commission  but  the 
House  of  Bishops  are  on  record  in  favor  of  the 
introduction  of  the  English  Versicles  after 
the  Lord's  Prayer  at  Matins  and  Evensong  ;  of 
the  change  of  the  expression  in  the  Prayer  for 
All  Conditions  of  Men,  to  read,  "the  good 
estate  of  the  Catholic  Church ";  of  the  per- 
mission to  use  the  Ninety-fifth  Psalm  as  an 
alternative  form  for  our  present  Venite ;  of 
the  right  to  use  the  thanksgiving,  "  Thanks 
be  to  Thee,  0  Christ/'  after  the  Gospel.  More 
serious,  even,  I  think,  than  these,  was  the  fail- 


120  THE   PRAYER   BOOK    EXRICHED. 

ure  to  adopt  the  authorized  Collect,  Epistle, 
and  Gospel  for  use  when  the  Holy  Communion 
is  celebrated  at  the  time  of  a  burial.  And  it  is 
greatly  to  be  regretted,  it  seems  to  me;  because 
in  the  growing  use  of  the  Holy  Communion  in 
connection  with  burials,  which  will  not  and 
cannot  be  arrested  by  this  negative  action  of 
the  House  of  Deputies,  we  have  failed  to  seize 
the  opportunity  of  giving  ecclesiastical  author- 
ity and  suggestion  for  the  kind  of  service 
that  is  to  be  used.  I  think  it  matter  of  very 
serious  loss,  that  the  Prayer  of  Humble  Access 
was  not  transferred  to  its  much  more  natural 
position,  which  it  holds  in  the  Scottish  Com- 
munion Office,  namely,  immediately  before  the 
act  of  administration  of  the  consecrated  Ele- 
ments, instead  of  immediately  before  the  act 
of  Consecration. 

There  is  no  need,  of  course,  to  argue  these 
things  now ;  because  the  wise  conclusion  has 
been  reached  to  make  no  further  change,  but 
to  take  the  book  as  it  is  now  and  leave  it,  as 
I  think  it  will  be  left,  for  many  a  year.  But 
both  as  matter  of  history,  and  for  the  credit 
of  the  Commission  that  had  the  work  in  charge, 
it  seems  to  me  just  and  right  to  make  the 
simple  statement  of  these  facts ;  and  I  think 
it  ought  to  go  on  record  also,  that  both  in  the 
Conventions  of  1886  and  1889,  whatever  was 


THK    IKAYKR   BOOK    ENRICHED.  121 

adopted  in  the  House  of  Bishops  was  adopted 
with  practical  unanimity,  and  in  the  House 
of  Deputies  with  only  a  very  small  minority 
opposed ;  that  out  of  thirty-three  resolutions 
proposed  by  the  Commission  in  1883,  only  nine 
were  lost  entirely ;  that  of  the  one  hundred 
and  forty-eight  separate  propositions  which 
they  contained,  one  hundred  and  nine  were 
either  finally  adopted  in  1886  or  approved. 
And  I  go  back  with  infinite  thankfulness  to 
the  closing  scenes  of  the  Convention  of  1883, 
when,  in  the  crowded  church,  and  with  the 
largest  representation  of  dioceses  continued 
to  the  end  that  I  have  ever  seen,  the  vote  on 
the  adoption  of  the  committee's  amended  re- 
port was  made  most  emphatic  in  its  practical 
unanimity,  as  diocese  after  diocese  was  called, 
and  answered  aye. 

Of  the  fifty-two  resolutions  approved  in  1889, 
only  seven  were  not  adopted  in  1892  ;  and  two 
of  these  losses  are  real  gains,  because  one  of 
them  secures  the  use  of  the  great  Messianic 
Sixty-ninth  Psalm  on  Good  Friday ;  and  the 
other  removes  even  the  appearance  of  approv- 
ing the  thought  of  evening  ordinations  and  cele- 
brations of  the  Holy  Communion.  And  it  is 
to  be  added,  here,  that  the  spirit  of  this  last 
Convention  in  dealing  with  the  final  adoption 
of  the  Standard  Book  of  Common  Prayer  has 


122  THE  PRAYER  BOOK  ENRICHED. 

been  more  admirable  than  ever  before,  the 
concurrent  action  of  the  two  houses  more 
uniform,  the  majority  of  votes  approaching 
more  nearly  to  unanimity.  And  the  book 
itself,  with  the  accessories  of  printing  so 
perfectly  done  as  to  make  even  the  out- 
ward appearance  worthy  of  its  invaluable 
contents,  will  stand  as  a  monument  of  that 
sort  of  reverence  to  the  worship  of  our  Blessed 
Lord  which  hesitates  not  to  break  the  "ala- 
baster box"  of  precious  ointment,  "very 
costly/'  so  that  its  richest  and  its  best  may 
be  offered  as  a  token  of  adoring  love. 

For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the 
American  Church  the  Standard  Book  is  really 
a  look,  and  not  an  edition;  and  the  shrine  is 
not  unworthy  of  the  jewel  which  it  contains. 

It  would  be  very  easy  to  make  a  sort  of  cata- 
logue resume  of  the  results  of  the  revision  of 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  I  am  disposed 
rather  to  go  on  the  principle  of  selection  and 
classification. 

Clear  out  above  other  gains,  to  me,  stands 
the  reparation  we  have  made,  in  completing 
the  list  of  the  festivals  of  our  dear  Lord,  by 
making  full  provision  of  services  for  the  keep- 
ing of  the  great  Feast  of  the  Transfiguration — 
marred  not  a  little,  and  diminished  somewhat 
in  its  value,  by  the  unreasoning  and  unfortu- 


THE   PRAYER    BOOK    ENBICHED.  123 

nate  position  it  is  made  to  occupy  in  the 
Christian  year;  becauso  it  surely  ought  to 
have  come  somewhere  in  Epiphany  time,  and 
surely  ought  not  to  have  come  at  a  time  of 
the  year,  when  so  many  of  our  congregations 
are  scattered  to  the  four  quarters  of  the  world. 
Nevertheless  it  is  true,  that  it  has  been  vouch- 
safed to  us  in  the  American  Church,  to  dig- 
nify this  marvellous  manifestation  of  our  dear 
Lord's  deity,  into  its  due  position  of  ritual  ob- 
servance in  the  Christian  year.  It  completes 
the  round  of  the  marked  events  in  the  Master's 
life.  It  brings  into  prominence  all  the  blessed 
lessons  connected  with  it ;  the  complete  un- 
veiling of  the  Divinity  shining  through  the 
flesh  in  which  our  King  was  pleased  to  taber- 
nacle while  He  was  here  on  earth ;  the  splendid 
intimation  of  the  character  of  the  Lord's  risen 
body  to-day,  into  whose  glory  the  bodies  of 
our  humiliation  are  one  day  to  be  changed ; 
the  witness  of  the  Law  and  the  Prophets  to 
Christ ;  the  communion  in  the  future  world 
among  the  living  and  the  dead,  and  between 
both  quick  and  dead  with  Him ;  the  seal  set 
upon  the  power  of  the  habit  of  real  fasting 
and  true  prayer,  to  transfigure  the  coarseness 
and  commonness  of  our  natures  here,  and  to 
bring  us  into  closer  communion  with  the  dear 
Lord.     All  these  are  truths  of  infinite  value 


124  THE  PRAYER  BOOK  ENRICHED. 

and  consolation,  which  on  this  feast,  as  its 
constant  keeping  among  us  will  more  and 
more  go  on,  are  emphasized  and  enforced  in 
ways  that  cannot  but  be  helpful  to  a  fuller 
and  more  perfect  acceptance  of  the  faith. 

Next  to  this,  it  seems  to  me,  has  been  the 
great  gain  of  the  restoration  of  the  three  evan- 
gelical canticles  to  our  Matins  and  Evensong. 
The  mutilated  Benedictus  no  longer  jars  upon 
our  reverent  sense  of  the  completeness  of  in- 
spired words;  and  the  Magnificat  and  Nunc 
Dimittis  have  come  back  to  their  time-honored 
place  in  the  evening  worship  of  the  Church  of 
God.  I  am  bound  to  say,  too,  in  this  same 
connection,  that  I  think  a  great  step  forward 
has  been  taken  in  teaching  people  the  rightful 
reverence  that  is  due  to  Holy  Scripture,  in  the 
complete  wiping  away  from  our  liturgical  use, 
of  those  curious  mosaics  of  Psalms  which  were 
singularly  unauthorized,  unmusical,  and  un- 
edifying  ;  and  in  substituting,  for  the  ten  Selec- 
tions— in  which  equal  liberty  was  taken  to 
mutilate  the  Psalms  as  they  stand  in  Holy 
Scripture — a  fuller  set  of  Selections,  in  which 
the  Psalms  are  all  complete,  except  in  the  single 
instance  of  the  old  Compline  Psalm.  I  believe, 
too,  that  the  very  admirable  selection  of  Proper 
Psalms,  for  other  days  than  the  six  for  which 
they  were  appointed   before,  is  a  step  in  the 


THE   PRAYER   BOOK   ENRICHED.  125 

direction  of  opening  up  to  people — what  often 
has  seemed  hidden — the  Christian  application 
of  the  Psalter,  and  the  power  of  its  adaptation 
to  meet,  not  only  the  various  incidents  in  the 
story  of  the  Christian  year,  but  also  the  vary- 
ing demands  and  necessities  of  our  individual 
lives. 

In  dealing  with  the  Creeds,  the  Church  has 
planted  herself  upon  strong  and  unmistakable 
ground.  In  the  first  place  she  has  put  back 
into  the  Apostles'  Creed  the  word  "  again," 
which  is  not  only  the  true  translation  of  the 
Latin  word,  but  is  the  emphasis  of  the  reality 
and  identity  of  the  resurrection  body  ;  and,  in 
the  next  place,  she  has  removed  all  accusation — 
which  lay,  not  altogether  unjustly,  against  her 
once — of  tampering  with  an  article  of  the  Cath- 
olic faith,  by  removing  the  permission,  which 
had  been  guardedly  given,  to  omit  from  the 
Creed  the  article  of  the  descent  into  hell. 
Not  less  clear  and  not  less  Catholic  is  the  new 
rubric,  which  requires  that  the  Creed  com- 
monly called  the  Nicene,  shall  be  used  after  the 
Gospel  on  the  five  great  feasts  of  Christmas, 
Easter,  Ascension,  Whitsunday,  and  Trinity 
Sunday  ;  carrying  with  it  the  implication,  cor- 
rect in  ritual  and  growing  in  use,  that  the 
Nicene  Creed  should  be  reserved  for  the  Com- 
munion Office,  and  that  the  Apostles'  Creed 


126  THE   PRATER  BOOK   ENRICHEfi. 

is  the  baptismal  symbol  and  the  right  form  to 
be  used  in  Morning  and  Evening  Prayer. 

The  removal  of  the  Gloria  in  Excelsis  from 
Morning  Prayer,  is  a  case  of  conformity  to 
what  I  think  has  become  the  habit  of  our  con- 
gregations. Its  retention  in  the  Evening  Office, 
is  in  the  line  with  certain  Oriental  uses  of  con- 
siderable antiquity  and  authority  ;  but  the  true 
meaning  of  it  is,  I  think,  that  the  great  hymn 
is  relegated  to  find  its  most  rightful  and  correct 
use  in  the  Office  of  the  Holy  Communion.  The 
same  rule,  I  trust,  will  grow  more  and  more 
into  observance  as  applied  to  the  shorter — 
which  is,  of  course,  the  stronger — absolution ; 
that  it  should  be  reserved  for  the  faithful  in 
the  course  of  their  preparation  for  the  reception 
of  the  Blessed  Eucharist.  It  is  a  most  curious 
instance  of  mistaken  choice,  that  because  the 
Declaration  of  Absolution  contains  the  posi- 
tive statement  of  the  power  and  command- 
ment given  to  the  priest  to  forgive  the  sins  of 
the  penitent — which  some  people  do  not  like  to 
believe  or  to  say — therefore  that  which  is  a 
mere  statement  has  more  doctrinal  significance 
and  more  actual  power  than  the  shorter  form, 
which  is  the  direct  conveyance  of  the  gift. 

One  must  recognize,  too,  in  the  revised 
Prayer  Book,  distinct  and  definite  gains  in  the 
restoration  of  the  old  idea  of  the  vigil  of  cer- 


THE   PRATER   BOOK   ENRICHED.  127 

tain  Holy  Days,  by  the  authorized  use  of  the 
Collect  on  the  eve  of  the  feast ;  in  the  pro- 
vision of  alternate  Collects  for  the  two  great 
Feasts  of  Christmas  and  Easter  ;  in  the  per- 
mission to  omit  the  Decalogue  at  either  of  two 
celebrations  ;  in  tho  new  Offertory  Sentences, 
which  seem  so  beautiful,  that  one  only  wonders 
that  they  have  not  been  used  before ;  in  the 
Kyrie  after  the  Summary  of  the  Law;  and  in 
the  change  of  the  Prayer  of  Consecration, 
which  makes  a  good  grammatical  sentence  out 
of  what  certainly  could  not  have  been  consid- 
ered such  before. 

The  story  of  the  new  rubric  is  one  that  is 
rather  long  to  tell.  The  original  proposition, 
forbidding  any  celebration  without  the  presence 
of  communicants,  which  was  adopted  by  the 
House  of  Bishops,  was  not  concurred  in  by  the 
House  of  Deputies.  I  do  not  think  that  any 
particular  theological  opinion  is  to  be  argued 
from  this  want  of  concurrent  action,  because 
there  was  immediate  and  almost  unanimous 
action  in  the  House  of  Deputies,  upon  the  ru- 
bric which  the  Bishops  sent  down — "And  suffi- 
cient opportunity  shall  be  given  to  those  pres- 
ent to  communicate. "  The  single  desire,  so  far 
as  I  know,  either  of  tho  committee  or  of  the 
bishops,  was  to  prevent  the  separation  of  two 
things,  which,  by  the  very  revealed  description 


128     THE  PRAYER  BOOK  ENRICHED. 

of  the  Blessed  Sacrament,  are  two  sides  of  the 
one'great  truth  ;  namely,  that  it  is  something 
to  be  eaten  as  well  as  offered;  and  that  the  Sac- 
rifice must  be  partaken  of,  if  those  by  whom 
it  is,  and  for  whom  it  is  offered,  are  to  derive 
the  benefits  for  which  the  Holy  Communion 
was  instituted  by  our  Lord. 

To  have  secured  the  relegation  of  the  preface 
in  the  Confirmation  Office  to  its  original  and 
proper  position  of  a  rubric,  by  making  its  read- 
ing permissive  and  not  obligatory ;  and  to  have 
thrown  into  the  Office  the  Scriptural  authority 
for  Laying  on  of  Hands,  in  the  reading  of  the 
appointed  Lesson,  are  two  points  of  gain  in 
the  right  direction  ;  not  all,  perhaps,  that 
could  have  been  desired  ;  but  tending  certainly 
to  impress  upon  people  the  truth,  that  the 
confirming  of  vows  is  only  the  preliminary, 
human,  and  conditional  part  of  the  being  con- 
firmed by  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Nor  do  I  feel  that  I  ought  to  stop  here,  in 
the  catalogue  of  enrichments,  without  noting 
that  we  have  gained  some  opening  Sentences 
with  reference  to  the  seasons  of  the  Christian 
year  ;  an  Offertory  anthem  at  the  presentation 
of  the  alms  and  oblations  ;  the  Versicles — 
adapted  somewhat — from  the  English  Book  in 
the  Order  for  Daily  Evening  Prayer ;  the  Col- 
lect for  the  Unity  of  God's  People;  Collects  for 


THE   TRAYER  BOOK   ENRICHED.  129 

Rogation  Sunday,  the  Rogation  Days  and  for 
Missions;  the  Thanksgiving  for  a  Child's 
Recovery  from  Sickness ;  and  the  penitential 
office  for  Ash  Wednesday,  giving  the  Fifty- 
first  Psalm  its  proper  place,  as  the  great  peni- 
tential psalm;  and  adding  the  beautiful  Collect 
from  the  English  Book,  asking  the  pitifulness 
of  the  great  mercy  of  God  to  loose  those  who 
are  tied  and  bound  with  the  chain  of  their 
sins. 

We  have  made  gains,  too,  in  the  addition  of 
prayers  which  may  be  used  in  the  Burial  Office  ; 
one  of  which  ties  a  new  knot  between  our 
Prayer  Book  and  the  first  book  of  Edward  VI., 
and  between  the  American  Church  and  the 
dear  old  Mother  Church  of  Scotland,  to  whom 
we  owe  not  the  episcopate  only,  but  the  primi- 
tive and  un-Roman  fullness  of  the  Consecra- 
tion Prayer  in  the  Communion  Office. 

To  me,  the  insertion  in  the  Marriage  Office 
of  the  words  from  the  English  book  is  not 
only  a  great  enrichment,  but  a  most  valuable 
emphasis  and  endorsement  of  what  seems,  at 
any  rate,  to  be  an  almost  forgotten  fact, 
namely,  that  in  both  the  Jewish  and  the 
Christian  dispensations,  Almighty  God  has 
set  His  seal  upon  the  honorableness  and  in- 
dissolubleness  of  the  estate  of  marriage. 

In  these  days,  when  marriage  is  degraded  to 
9 


130  THE   PRAYER   BOOK   ENRICHED. 

an  unsanctified  and  unbinding  civil  arrange- 
ment, every  public  statement  that  asserts  its 
Divine  and  primitive  origin,  and  keeps  about 
it  all  its  sacred  sanctions,  is  worth  preserving. 
As  we  have  had  it  hitherto,  it  might  seem  to 
be  an  Apostolic  institution,  originating  with  St. 
Paul,  or  with  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews ;  whereas  it  has  its  three  great  seals 
from  the  Father,  the  Word,  and  the  Holy 
Ghost;  from  God,  and  Christ,  and  the  Church — 
in  the  primeval  Paradise,  in  our  Lord's  human 
ministry,  and  in  the  Apostolic  days.  And  when 
men  have  learned  that  it  is  not  only  honorable 
but  a  u  mystery  " — which  is  the  Greek  word  for 
a  sacrament — in  which  the  oneness  of  the  flesh 
of  the  twain  is  involved,  and  which  sets  forth 
the  organic  and  mystical  union  of  Christ  and 
His  Church,  there  will  be  found  some  holy 
ground  to  stand  on,  against  the  theory  of  a 
mere  civil  contract  in  marriage,  and  against 
the  degrading  and  disgraceful  frequency  and 
facility  of  divorce. 

The  question  of  increased  flexibility  of  use, 
which  was  the  other  matter  referred  to  the 
Commission,  has  been  dealt  with  in  various 
ways.  We  have  in  many  instances  only  made 
lawful  that  which  had  become  habitual,  al- 
though with  no  other  law  than  that  of  fre- 
quent use  and  of  unwillingness  on  the  part  of 


THE    PRAYER   ROOK    ENRICHED.  131 

the  ecclesiastical  authority  to  interfere  with 
such  use. 

The  absolute  separation  into  three  distinct 
parts,  of  the  Morning  Prayer,  the  Litany,  and 
the  Holy  Communion ;  the  authority  to  use 
the  Litany  in  the  evening ;  and  the  freedom 
given  to  the  minister,  subject  to  the  direction 
of  the  Ordinary,  to  compile,  out  of  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer,  special  offices  on  any  day 
when  Morning  and  Evening  Prayer  shall  have 
been  said,  are  the  first  instances  of  making 
flexible  that  which  has  been  rigid,  without 
opening  the  way  to  the  license  of  mere  pa- 
rochial or  individual  selection.  In  the  same 
direction,  the  permission  to  shorten  Evensong 
by  the  omission  of  the  Exhortation,  and  of  all 
the  prayers  after  the  Collect  for  Grace;  and 
while  retaining  the  essential  features  of  our 
Morning  Prayer,  to  use  only  a  sentence  and 
the  Lord's  Prayer  before  the  Venite,  ending 
the  Office  with  the  Prayer  for  the  President ; 
these,  with  the  authority  at  either  celebration 
of  the  Holy  Communion,  when  there  are  two 
celebrations,  to  omit  the  recitation  of  the  Ten 
Commandments — always  providing  that  the 
Summary  of  the  Law  be  read  when  the  Com- 
mandments are  not — are  steps  in  the  direction 
of  a  flexible  use  which  will  not  lead  to  the  dis- 
use of  the  Prayer  Book. 


132    THE  PRAYEB  BOOK  ENRICHED. 

In  connection  with  this  shortened  Order  for 
Morning  Prayer  when  it  immediately  precedes 
the  celebration  of  the  Holy  Communion,  atten- 
tion ought  to  be  called  to  what  Bishop  Sparrow 
denned  as  the  ' e  rationale  "  of  the  Prayer  Book. 
It  involves,  it  seems  to  me,  the  teaching  that 
the  especial  features  of  Morning  Prayer  are  ob- 
served when  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Invitatory 
Psalm,  the  Psalter  for  the  day,  the  two  Les- 
sons, the  Te  Deum  and  Benedictus,  the  Creed 
and  the  three  Collects  have  been  used.  And, 
next,  it  involves  the  principle  that  the  rest  of 
the  service  may  safely  be  omitted,  because  the 
Office  for  the  Holy  Communion  contains  its 
own  Confession  and  Absolution,  its  own  high- 
est act  of  thanksgiving,  and,  in  the  Prayer  for 
Christ's  Church  Militant,  the  supplication  for 
rulers  and  for  "all  conditions  of  men." 

I  am  by  no  means  clear  that  the  time  is  not 
coming,  when  this  Church  will  find  itself  wise 
in  rising  to  the  necessities  of  its  great  national 
possibility,  to  deal  a  little  more  freely  even 
than  we  have  with  our  Offices  of  Morning  and 
Evening  Prayer.  If  the  question  arises,  as  it 
seems  likely  to  almost  at  any  time,  how  we 
can  meet  the  desire  of  the  great  Protestant 
bodies  about  us  for  some  communion  with 
us  in  the  matter  of  worship ;  if,  for  instance, 
the  day  should  come  when  we  shall  not  only 


THE  PRAYER  BOOK  ENRICHED.     133 

receive,  as  we  are  receiving,  ministers  trained 
in  the  various  denominations  into  the  Ministry 
of  this  Church,  but  when  their  congregations 
shall  follow  and  come  with  them,  it  will  get  to 
be  a  serious  question,  whether  we  ought  not 
to  allow  for  such  as  these — and  if  for  these,  of 
course  for  those  among  us  who  may  desire  it — 
some  larger  liberty  in  the  matter  of  the  Offices 
which  do  not  directly  affect  the  sacramental 
doctrine  and  the  sacramental  grace. 

It  does  not  seem  to  me  that  it  would  be  any 
breach,  or  would  involve  the  risk  of  any  breach, 
of  our  maintenance  of  the  faith,  in  the  only 
way  in  which  it  can  be  maintained,  by  the 
constant  and  quickening  breath  of  definite 
liturgical  worship,  if  we  left  ourselves  somehow 
free,  only  to  insist  upon  such  Offices  or  parts 
of  Offices  as  contain  the  essential  sacramental 
elements  of  service.  If  we  anchored  ourselves 
firmly  to  the  Offices  for  Holy  Baptism  and  the 
Holy  Communion  and  for  Confirmation,  the 
Ordinal,  and  the  Marriage  Service — so  far  as 
it  asserts  the  Christian  doctrine  on  the  subject 
— I  cannot  but  think,  that,  to  those  who  are 
not  trained  to  the  majestic  dignity  of  our  Daily 
Order  of  Matins  and  Evensong  there  might  be 
relaxation  as  to  their  use.  I  should  greatly 
hope  that  such  a  course  might  tend  to  im- 
press   upon    those    to    whom     the    Church's 


134  THE  PRAYER  BOOK   EKRICHED. 

system  ought  to  be  more  of  a  reality  than  it  is, 
that  we,  who  have  by  birthright  the  inheritance 
of  this  great  system  of  prayer  and  praise,  should 
practise  it  far  more  thoroughly  than  it  is 
practised  now. 

And  I  cannot  but  believe  that  the  time  is 
coming,  when  even  more  than  we  have  done 
now — in  the  printing  of  the  Book  of  the  Ar- 
ticles with  its  separate  heading — may  be  done, 
to  show  that  the  XXXIX  Articles,  valuable  as 
many  of  them  are,  are  not  intended  even  for 
our  own  lay  people ;  much  less  for  those 
who,  from  other  religious  bodies,  are  looking 
toward  some  recognized  relation  to  us. 

So  far  as  this  chapter  is  meant  to  be,  and 
had  to  be,  a  somewhat  dry  historical  resume 
of  results,  I  might  well  stop  here ;  but  there 
are  two  points  which  it  seems  to  me  need 
urging.  In  the  first  place,  however  one  may 
have  been  at  times  distressed  by  the  momen- 
tary differences  or  by  outbreaks  and  evidences 
of  warm  opposition,  I  do  not  think  any 
one  of  us  can  fail  to  thank  God  infinitely, 
not  merely  for  the  results,  but,  in  the  main, 
for  the  spirit  and  the  manner  in  which  these 
results  have  been  attained.  It  seemed  at  first 
sight  to  many  people  dangerous  to  the  last 
degree,  to  trust  such  a  body  as  our  General 
Convention  has  grown  to  be,  with  the  delicate 


THE   PRAYER   BOOK   ENRICHED.  135 

and  difficult  duty  of  altering  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer.  But  the  outcome  has  proved  that 
those  fears  were  groundless.  The  amount  of 
time  and  thought  and  intense  sense  of  respon- 
sibility; the  intelligent  interest,  not  more  of 
the  clergy  than  of  the  laity  ;  the  process 
of  education  in  Liturgies  ;  the  unusual  una- 
nimity with  which  the  main  results  have  been 
secured ;  the  great  patience  of  the  Church 
at  large  during  the  transition  period,  which  has 
been  prolonged  beyond  the  first  intention  ;  and 
the  emergence  from  the  difficult  and  anxious 
questions  which  were  connected  with  such  a 
movement,  with  no  effect  produced  but  in- 
creased unity,  intensified  love  and  reverence  for 
our  precious  heritage  ;  the  absence  of  any  mar- 
ring of  its  beauty,  and  the  restoration  of  much 
treasure  that  had  been  temporarily  laid  aside  : 
all  these,  certainly  should  make  us  feel  most 
deeply  that  the  time  had  come  when  the 
movement  was  not  only  needed,  but  when  the 
work  could  be  done.  And  while  I  think  it  is 
true,  that  what  is  commonly  called  the  jus  li- 
turgicum  does  rest  with  the  bishops  ;  so  that  if 
any  work  of  this  kind  is  to  be  undertaken  again 
it  would  be  wise  to  provide  by  canon  for  what 
has  been  the  fact  by  courtesy — namely,  that  the 
finished  scheme  should  be  prepared  by  the 
Bishops  and  then  presented  to  the  House  of 


136  THE   PRAYER  BOOK   ENRICHED. 

Deputies — it  has  been  very  plain  that,  dealing 
under  the  solemn  sanctions  of  the  only  author- 
ity under  which  we  could  act,  and  under  the 
solemn  surroundings  of  the  marked  presence 
of  God,  all  has  been  overruled  to  His  greater 
glory  and  His  highest  service. 

And  the  second  thing  that  needs,  it  seems 
to  me,  to  be  said,  is  that  there  ought  to  be 
more  thoroughness  and  more  faithfulness  in 
the  use  of  this  book  about  which  we  talk  so 
much,  but  which,  it  seems  to  me,  too  little 
forms  and  fashions  either  the  teaching  of  the 
clergy  or  the  religious  character  of  our  lives. 
There  can  be  no  question  but  that  St.  Paul 
meant  to  teach  us  a  wholesome  and  important 
lesson  when  he  said,  not  that  the  form  of  sound 
words  was  delivered  to  us,  but  that  we  were 
delivered  into  a  form  of  sound  words  ;  that  the 
object,  that  is  to  say,  of  Creeds  and  liturgies 
is  to  mould  the  devotional  and  doctrinal,  and, 
consequently,  the  religious  character  of  us 
all. 

The  Book  of  Common  Prayer  is,  in  itself,  a 
system  not  only  of  worship  but  of  training.  It 
sets  us  poles  apart  from  all  modern  theories 
about  the  education  of  a  Christian  child.  Be- 
ginning with  the  implanted  life  of  regenera- 
tion, the  child  is  held  steadily  and  step  by  step, 
along  the  plainly  marked  way  of  teaching  and 


THE   PRAYER   BOOK   ENRICHED.  137 

of  worship,  by  which  its  whole  life  shall  be 
moulded.  It  is  never  left  in  any  doubt  as  to 
the  certainty  of  its  sonship  of  God.  It  is 
never  left  to  any  uncertainty  as  to  its  training 
for  the  kingdom  of  Heaven.  And  it  is  never 
without  the  constant  reminder  that,  whether 
birth  and  inheritance  ever  are  to  meet,  depends 
entirely  upon  the  character,  which  we  form  by 
the  grace  of  that  birth,  and  which  only  can  fit 
us  for  the  enjoyment  of  that  inheritance.  The 
taught  Catechism,  the  habit  of  prayer  and 
church-going,  the  early  Confirmation,  and,  con- 
sequently, the  early  coming  to  the  Holy  Com- 
munion, frequent  worship,  and  the  forming  of 
the  lines  of  religious  thought  and  expression 
upon  the  very  definite  mould  and  model  of  the 
Prayer  Book — all  these  are  things  that  ought 
to  enter,  far  more  than  they  do,  into  the  home 
life  and  training  of  our  households. 

In  the  same  way  it  seems  to  me,  that  the 
clergy  are  at  fault  in  not  obeying  the  old  Eng- 
lish canon  of  the  daily  saying  of  the  Offices 
for  Morning  and  Evening  Prayer,  publicly  if 
they  may,  and  if  not,  privately  ;  that  people 
ought  to  learn  the  duty  and  desirableness  of 
framing  their  lives  upon  this  theory,  so  that 
instead  of  now  and  then  coming  to  church 
when  they  can,  they  should  rather  make  the 
order  of  their  lives  turn  toward  the  benediction 


138  THE   PRAYER  BOOK   ENRICHED. 

of  the  day,  opening  and  closing  with  the  public 
worship  of  the  House  of  God. 

I  am  concerned,  too,  I  confess,  about  our 
faithfulness  in  using  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer.  There  has  been  a  certain  recognized 
license  about  many  things,  tolerated  partly  be- 
cause of  a  perpetual  expectation  of  some 
change — which  it  seems  to  me  ought  to  stop 
now. 

This  Church  has  absolutely  decided,  for  in- 
stance— much  to  my  regret — not  to  take  the 
English  rendering  of  the  Te  Deum,  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  certain  favorite  settings  of  music 
for  that  noble  hymn  seem  to  require  the  words 
" honorable "  instead  of  "adorable",  and  "let 
Thy  mercy  lighten  upon  us."  I  think  we  ought 
to  adapt  whatever  music  we  may  use,  to  the 
American  version  of  this  hymn.  And  the 
"  Thanks"  after  the  Gospel,  has  been  definitely 
decided  against — also  to  my  great  regret — and 
ought,  therefore,  it  seems  to  me,  to  be  given  up. 
The  singing  of  the  Benedictus  before  the  Con- 
secration in  the  Communion  Office  is  plainly 
against  the  law  of  this  Church,  and,  conse- 
quently, ought  not  to  be  done  ;  and  so  I  might 
go  on.  It  is  enough  to  say,  that  with  the  added 
liberty  of  use  and  the  added  richness  of  change, 
it  becomes  loyal  and  faithful  priests  to  adhere  to 
and  abide  by  the  final  decisions  of  the  highest 


THE   PRAYER   BOOK    ENRICIIED.  130 

authority  that  can  speak  to  them  upon  this 
subject. 

In  this  historic  year,  rich  with  venerable 
memories  of  the  men  who  made  the  Book, 
and  the  Book  that  made  the  men,  we  may 
well  make  thankful  recognition  to  Almighty 
God,  of  the  grace  and  guidance  of  His 
Holy  Spirit  through  the  one  hundred  years 
and  more  of  our  ecclesiastical  and  liturgical 
growth.  The  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  not 
an  utterance  of  our  devotions  merely,  but 
the  moulding  power  of  our  characters  and 
lives,  is  the  noblest  possible  expression  of  the 
religion  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  stands  beside  the 
Holy  Scriptures  in  the  Authorized  Version, 
resonant  with  the  same  stirring  "  English 
undefiled  "  that  marks  the  vast  superiority  of 
the  King  James  Biblo  over  all  other  efforts  at 
translation.  It  holds  up  before  all  men  in  its 
Creeds,  its  Catechism,  and  its  sacramental  Offi- 
ces, the  roundness  and  completeness  of  the 
Catholic  Faith.  It  is  almost  like  a  great  cathe- 
dral echoing  with  the  songs  of  centuries.  The 
old  Psalter  that  made  up  the  worship  in  which 
the  Blessed  Lord  united  with  the  Church  of  the 
older  Dispensation ;  the  hymn,  perhaps  at  least, 
of  Ambrose,  which  we  call  Te  Deum;  the  in- 
spired songs  which  broke  from  the  full  heart 
of  the  Blessed  Mother  of  the  Son  of  God  and 


140  THE  PRAYER  BOOK  ENRICHED. 

of  the  father  of  His  forerunner;  the  prayers 
of  the  "  golden-mouthed "  bishop,  and  the 
thrice  holy  hymn  of  the  angels — these  make  it 
almost  true  to  say  that  it  is  a  temple,  richly 
decked  with  the  carvings  in  stone,  and  the 
figures  radiant  with  sunlight  through  the  win- 
dows, of  martyrs,  and  prophets,  and  apostles, 
and  angels,  and  the  saints  of  the  holy  Church 
throughout  all  the  world.  It  finds  its  way,  by 
frequent  and  familiar  use,  into  the  heart  and 
conscience  of  the  child  ;  and  as  its  "  heavenly 
notes"  fix  their  sweet  harmonies  upon  the 
memory  of  childhood,  they  make  the  indelible 
impression  of  their  truth  upon  the  whole  life 
afterwards.  It  is  the  password  of  that  fellow- 
ship among  English-speaking  people,  which 
makes  us  akin  with  all  the  wide-spread  families 
of  this  great  conquering  race,  and  at  home 
everywhere  in  the  old  fatherland  across  the 
sea,  and  in  the  new  lands  which  own  the  sov- 
ereignty of  England  or  the  sweep  of  our  Amer- 
ican civilization.  It  is  the  silent  preacher,  the 
silent  teacher — sent  of  God,  as  we  believe — in 
the  copies  multiplied  by  millions  through  the 
restless  energy  of  the  press,  thick  as  the  leaves 
of  Vallombrosa.  It  gathers  and  keeps  all  sacred 
memories  of  separate  souls.  It  is  the  heritage 
and  heirloom  of  an  ancestry  which  carries  us 
back  to  the  upper  room  in  Jerusalem,  and  to 


Tin:   NULYBB   HOOK  BVBIOH1  1  11 

the  underground  churches  where  the  dead 
slept,  while  the  living  sang  hymns  of  victory 
over  death.  And  it  lifts  us  up  and  links  us  in 
with  t  ho  worded  glory,  the  articulate  praise 
of  the  worship  of  the  Paradise  of  God. 

Surely,  it  is  in  the  hearts  and  minds  of  all 
to  thank  God  for  the  inestimable  privilege  of 
a  share  in  the  perfecting,  possession,  and 
preservation  of  that  which  so  "  procures  rever- 
ence in  the  worship  of  God,"  and  "promulgates 
the  truths  of  the  Gospel  to  mankind  in  the 
clearest,  plainest,  most  affecting  and  majestic 
manner, "  to  the  glory  of  God  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord. 


APPENDIX. 

Changes  Incorporated  into  the  Standard 
Prayer  Book  of  1892. 


APPENDIX. 

Changes  Incorporated  into  the  Standard 
Prayer  Book  of  1892. 

I.     IN  THE  PRELIMINARY   PORTION. 

1.  The  Table  of  Contents  has  been  made  to  conform 
to  the  actual  contents.  New  Tables  have  been  pro- 
vided for  finding  Easter-day,  the  Dominical  Letter, 
etc.,  with  a  Note  as  to  the  Ecclesiastical  Full  Moon. 

2.  Under  the  general  title  Concerning  the  Service 
of  the  Church,  the  following  paragraphs  have  been 
prefixed  to  the  Order  how  the  Psalter  is  appointed  to  be 
Head: 

"  The  Order  for  Morning  Prayer,  the  Litany,  and  the 
Order  for  the  Administration  of  the  Lord's  Supper  or 
Holy  Communion,  are  distinct  Services,  and  may  be 
used  either  separately  or  together  ;  Provided,  that  no 
one  of  these  Services  be  habitually  disuse.  1. 

"  The  Litany  may  bo  used  either  in  place  of  the  Pray- 
ers that  follow  the  Prayer  for  the  President  of  the  United 
States  in  the  Order  for  Morning  Prayer,  or  in  place  of 
the  Prayers  that  follow  the  Collect  for  Aid  against 
Perils  in  the  Order  for  Evening  Prayer. 

"On  any  day  when  Morning  and  Evening  Prayer 

shall  have  been  said  or  are  to  be  said  in  Church,  the 

Minister  may,  at  any  other  Service  for  which  no  form 

is  provided,   use    such  devotions  as  he  shall  at  his 

10 


146  APPENDIX.' 

discretion  select  from  this  Book,  subject  to  the  direc- 
tion of  the  Ordinary. 

"For  days  of  Fasting  and  Thanksgiving,  appointed 
by  the  Civil  or  by  the  Ecclesiastical  Authority,  and  for 
other  special  occasions  for  which  no  Service  or  Prayer 
hath  been  provided  in  this  Book,  the  Bishop  may  set 
forth  such  Form  or  Forms  as  he  shall  think  fit,  in 
which  case  none  other  shall  be  used." 

3.  In  the  Order  how  the  Psalter  is  appointed  to  be 
read,  there  have  been  inserted  a  Table  of  Proper  Psalms 
to  be  used  on  certain  days,  sixteen  in  number,  and  a 
Table  of  twenty  Selections  of  Psalms  which  may  be  used 
on  days  for  which  Proper  Psalms  are  not  provided. 

4.  The  provision  that  the  Minister  may,  under  cer- 
tain circumstances,  appoint  the  Psalms  to  be  used  on 
special  days  of  Fasting  and  Thanksgiving  has  been 
omitted;  but  it  is  still  provided  that  he  may,  in  his 
discretion,  appoint  the  Lessons  to  be  used  on  such  days 
and  also  on  occasions  of  Ecclesiastical  Conventions 
and  of  Charitable  Collections. 

5.  The  following  paragraph  has  been  inserted  with 
reference  to  Hymns  and  Anthems : 

"Hymns  set  forth  and  allowed  by  the  authority  of 
this  Church,  and  Anthems  in  the  words  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture or  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  may  be  sung 
before  and  after  any  Office  in  this  Book,  and  also  before 
and  after  Sermons." 

6.  In  the  Table  of  Feasts,  the  title  the  Apostle  has 
been  added  to  the  name  of  St.  Barnabas,  and  The 
Transfiguration  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  has  been 
inserted.  In  the  Calendar,  the  Transfiguration  has 
been  assigned  to  the  sixth  day  of  August,  with  proper 
lessons,  and  certain  changes  have  in  consequence  been 
made  in  the  Tables  of  Lessons. 


APPENDIX.  14? 

II.     IN    TIIE    ORDER   FOR    DAILY    MORNING 
PRATER 

1.  It  has  been  provided  by  rubric  that,  on  any  day 
not  a  Sunday,  instead  of  the  General  Exhortation,  the 
Minister  may  say: 

"Let  us  humbly  confess  our  sins  unto  Almighty 
God." 

And  it  has  been  further  provided  that,  on  any  day 
not  a  Sunday,  the  Minister  may  end  the  Morning 
Prayer  with  the  Collect  for  Grace  and  2  Cor.  xiii. 
14, 

2.  It  has  been  also  provided  by  rubric  that,  on  any 
day  when  the  Holy  Communion  is  immediately  to  follow, 
the  Minister  may,  at  his  discretion,  pass  at  once  from 
the  opening  Sentences  to  the  Lord's  Prayer,  first  pro- 
nouncing, "  The  Lord  be  with  you.  Answer.  And  with 
thy  spirit.     Minister.     Let  us  pray." 

Slight  changes  have  been  made  in  the  order  of  the 
opening  Sentences  ;  and  special  Sentences  have  been 
added  for  the  Church  seasons. 

4.  The  Gloria  Patri  is  printed  after  the  rubric  which 
provides  for  its  use  after  the  Psalms  and  Canticles;  and 
the  Gloria  in  excelsis  is  not  printed  here,  but  a  rubric 
provides  that  it  may  be  used  at  the  end  of  the  whole 
Portion  of  the  Psalms  or  Selection  from  the  Psalter,  as 
heretofore. 

5.  The  Benediclus,  to  be  sung  or  said  after  the  Sec- 
ond Lesson,  has  been  inserted  in  full  before  the  Jubi- 
late, a  space  being  left  after  the  first  four  verses,  with  a 
Note,  That  save  on  the  Sundays  in  Advent  the  latter 
portion  may  be  omitted. 

6.  A  change  has  been  made  in  the  rubric  before  the 
Apostles'  Creed,  so  that  it  reads  as  follows  : 


148  APPENDIX. 

IT  "  Then  shall  be  said  the  Apostles'  Creed  by  the  Min- 
ister and  the  People,  standing.  And  any  Churches  may, 
instead  of  the  words,  He  descended  into  hell,  use  the 
words,  He  went  into  the  place  of  departed  spirits, 
which  are  considered  as  words  of  the  same  meaning  in 
the  Creed." 

7.  In  the  Apostles'  Creed  the  word  again  has  been 
inserted  in  the  latter  part  of  the  fifth  article,  so  that  it 
reads  : 

"  The  third  day  he  rose  again  from  the  dead." 

8.  A  change  has  been  made  in  the  rubric  after  the 
Prayer  for  the  President  of  the  United  States,  so  that  it 
reads  as  follows: 

U  "  The  following  Prayers  shall  be  omitted  here  when 
the  Litany  is  said,  and  may  be  omitted  when  the  Holy 
Communion  is  immediately  to  follow ." 

9.  In  the  Prayer  for  All  Conditions  of  Men,  after 
the  words,  in  mind,  body,  or  estate,  there  have  been 
added  in  brackets  the  words,  especially  those  for  whom 
our  prayers  are  desired,  a  note  providing  that  this  may 
be  said  when  any  desire  the  prayers  of  the  Congrega- 
tion. 

10.  In  the  General  Thanksgiving,  after  the  words, 
and  to  all  men,  there  have  been  added  in  brackets  the 
words,  particularly  to  those  who  desire  now  to  offer  up 
their  praises  and  thanksgivings  for  thy  late  mercies 
vouchsafed  unto  them,  a  note  providing  that  this  may 
be  said  when  any  desire  to  return  thanks  for  mercies 
vouchsafed  to  them. 

III.    IN   THE    ORDER   FOR    DAILY    EVENING 
PRAYER. 

1.  It  has  been  provided  by  rubric  that,  on  days  other 
than  the  Lord's  Day,  the  Minister  may,  at  his  discre- 


APPENDIX.  148 

tion,  pass  at  once  from  the  opening  Sentences  to  the 
Lord's  Prayer. 

&  It  has  been  also  provided  by  rubric  that,  on  any 
day,  instead  of  the  General  Exhortation,  the  Minister 
may  say: 

"Let  us  humbly  confess  our  sins  unto  Almighty 
God." 

8.  The  word  Amen  is  printed  at  the  end  of  the  Dec- 
laration of  Absolution,  without  any  rubric;  and  the 
rubric  before  the  Lord's  Prayer  ends  with  the  words, 
repeating  it  with  him. 

4.  Slight  changes  have  been  made  in  the  order  of  the 
opening  Sentences  ;  and  special  Sentences  have  been 
added  for  the  Church  seasons. 

5.  The  Gloria  in  excelsis  is  printed  after  a  rubric 
which  provides  that  it  may  be  used  at  the  end  of  the 
whole  Portion  or  Selection  of  Psalms. 

6.  The  hymn  Magnificat  has  been  inserted  before  the 
Cantate  Domino,  to  be  sung  or  said  after  the  First 
Lesson. 

7.  The  hymn  Nunc  dimittis  has  been  inserted  before 
the  Deus  Misereatur,  to  be  sung  or  said  after  the  Second 
Lesson. 

8.  The  same  change  has  been  made  in  the  rubric  be- 
fore the  Apostles'  Creed  as  in  Morning  Prayer ;  and  the 
word  again  has  been  inserted  in  the  Creed. 

9.  The  following  versicles  and  responses  have  been  in- 
serted between  the  response,  And  grant  us  thy  salvation, 
and  the  versicle,  0  Ood,  make  clean  our  hearts  within 
us: 

"  Minister.  0  Lord,  save  the  State. 
Answer.  And  mercifully  hear  us  when  we  call  upon 
thee. 
Minister.  Endue  thy  Ministers  with  righteousness. 


150  APPENDIX. 

Answer.  And  make  thy  chosen  people  joyful. 
Minister.  0  Lord,  save  thy  people. 
Answer.  And  bless  thine  inheritance. 
Minister.  Give  peace  in  our  time,  0  Lord. 
Answer.  For  it  is  thou,  Lord,  only,  that  makest  us 
dwell  in  safety." 

10.  A  new  Collect  for  Aid  against  Perils,  and  Prayer 
for  those  in  Civil  Authority  have  been  inserted,  and 
also  the  following  rubrics. 

TT  In  places  where  it  may  be  convenient,  here  followeth 

the  Anthem. 
•ff  The  Minister  may  here  end  the  Evening  Prayer  with 

such  Prayer,  or  Prayers,  taken  out  of  this  Booh,  as  he 

shall  think  fit. 

11.  The  Prayer  for  All  Conditions  of  Men  and  the 
General  Thanksgiving  are  printed  with  the  bracketed 
clause  and  marginal  note,  as  in  Morning  Prayer. 

IV.    IN  THE  LITANY. 

1.  The  following  Suffrage  has  been  inserted  after 
that  for  Bishops,  Priests,  and  Deacons : 

"  That  it  may  please  thee  to  send  forth  labourers  into 
thy  harvest ; 

We  beseech  thee  to  hear  us,  good  Lord." 

2.  The  General  Thanksgiving  has  been  printed  as  in 
Morning  and  Evening  Prayer. 

3.  The  words  Here  endeth  the  Litany  have  been 
omitted. 

V.    IN  THE  PRAYERS  AND  THANKSGIVINGS 
UPON  SEVERAL  OCCASIONS. 

1.  It  has  been  provided  by  rubrics  that  the  special 
Prayers  shall  be  used  before,  and  the  special  Thanks- 


APPENDIX.  151 

givings  shall  bo  used  after,  tho  General  Thanksgiving  ; 
ortli.it,  if  tho  General  Thanksgiving  is  not  said,  both 
the  social  Prayers  and  the  special  Thanksgivings  shall 
be  used  before  the  final  Prayer  of  Blessing  or  the  Bene- 
dution. 

2.  The  Prayer  to  be  used  at  Meetings  of  Convention, 
with  the  following  rubric,  lias  been  removed  to  a  place 
immediately  after  the  Prayer  for  Congress;  and  changes 
have  been  made  in  the  Prayer  and  tho  rubric. 

3.  There  has  been  inserted  after  the  Prayer  to  be  used 
at  the  Meetings  of  Convention,  a  Prayer  for  the  Unity 
of  God's  People. 

4.  There  has  been  inserted  after  the  Prayer  for  the 
Unity  of  God's  People,  a  Prayer  for  Missions. 

5.  There  have  been  inserted  after  the  Prayers  for 
those  who  are  to  be  admitted  to  Jloly  Orders,  Prayers  for 
Fruitful  Seasons,  to  be  used  on  Rogation-Sunday  and 
the  Rogation-days. 

6.  There  has  been  inserted  after  the  Thanksgiving  for 
a  Recovery  from  Sickness,  a  Thanksgiving  for  a  Child's 
Recovery  from  Sickness. 

VI.    A  PENITENTIAL  OFFICE. 

A  Penitential  Office  for  Ash  Wednesday  has  been  in- 
serted after  the  Prayers  and  Thanksgivings  upon  Sev- 
eral Occasions,  containing  the  Psalm  li.  and  the  special 
Ash- Wednesday  prayers. 

VII.    IN  THE  COLLECTS,   EPISTLES,   AND 
GOSPELS. 

1.  The  rubric  prescribing  that  the  Collect,  Epistle, 
and  Gospel  for  the  Sunday  shall  serve  all  the  week  after, 
unless  otherwise  ordered,  has  been  placed  after  the 
general  title ;  and  after  it  there  has  been  inserted : 


152  APPENDIX. 

IT  The  Collect  appointed  for  any  Sunday  or  other 
Feast  may  be  used  at  the  Evening  Service  of  the  day 
before. 

2.  The  Collect,  Epistle,  and  Gospel  for  Christmas- 
day  are  ordered  to  serve  for  any  days  which  there  may 
be  between  the  Innocents'  Day  and  the  Sunday  after 
Christmas  ;  and  those  for  the  Epiphany,  for  Ash-Wed- 
nesday, and  for  Ascension-day  are  ordered  to  serve  for 
every  day  after  unto  the  next  Sunday,  except  upon 
Saints'  Days. 

3.  After  the  Gospel  for  Christmas-day  there  have 
been  inserted  a  new  Collect,  Epistle  and  Gospel,  which 
may  be  used  at  the  first  Communion  when  there  are  two 
celebrations  of  the  Communion  on  that  day. 

4.  The  Collects,  Epistles,  and  Gospels  for  St. 
Stephen's  Day,  St.  John  the  Evangelist's  Day,  and 
the  Innocents'  Day,  are  printed  after  the  Gospel  for 
Christmas-day. 

5.  The  second  rubric  after  the  Collect  for  Ash- 
Wednesday,  with  all  that  follows  before  the  Epistle, 
has  been  omitted. 

6.  The  Gloria  Patri  is  printed  at  the  end  of  the 
Anthems  appointed  to  be  used  on  Easter-day  instead  of 
the  Yenite. 

7.  After  the  Gospel  for  Easter-day  there  have  been 
inserted  a  new  Collect,  Epistle,  and  Gospel,  which  may 
be  used  at  the  first  Communion  when  there  are  two 
celebrations  of  the  Communion  on  that  day. 

8.  The  title  The  Twenty-fifth  Sunday  after  Trinity 
has  been  changed  to 

"  The  Sunday  next  before  Advent;  " 
and  in  place  of  the  rubric  after  the  Gospel  there  has 
been  substituted : 
■JT  If  there  be  more  than  twenty-five  Sundays  after 


APPENDIX. 

Trinity,  the  service  of  some  of  those  Sundays  that  were 
omitted  after  the  Epiphany  shall  be  taken  in  to  supply 
so  many  as  are  here  wanting.  And  if  there  be  fewer 
than  ticeniy-fwe  Sundays,  the  overplus  shall  be  omitted' 
9.  After  the  Gospel  for  St.  James's  Day,  the  Collect, 
Epistle,  and  Gospel  are  inserted  for 

The  Transfiguration  of  Christ. 

VIII.     IN    THE    ORDER   FOR   THE   ADMINIS- 
TRATION   OP   THE   LORD'S   SUPPER. 

1.  At  the  end  of  the  second  rubric,  for  the  words, 
as  soon  as  conveniently  may  be,  have  been  substituted 
the  words,  within  fourteen  days  after,  at  the  farthest. 

2.  The  doxology  has  been  omitted  from  the  Lord's 
Prayer  at  the  beginning  of  the  service,  so  that  it  ends 
thus: 

"  But  deliver  us  from  evil.     Amen." 

3.  The  words,  as  followeth,  have  been  omitted  from 
the  rubric  before  the  Ten  Commandments,  and  the 
following  rubric  has  been  inserted : 

Hie  Decalogue  may  be  omitted,  provided  it  be  said 
once  on  each  Sunday.  But  Note,  That  whenever  it  is 
omitted,  the  Minister  shall  say  the  Summary  of  the 
Law,  beginning,  Hear  what  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
saith. 

4.  After  the  Summary  of  the  Law,  the  following  has 
been  inserted : 

"Here,  if  the  Decalogue  hath  been  omitted,  shall  be 
said, 

Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us. 
Christ,  have  mercy  upon  us. 
Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us. 
1[  Then  the  Minister  may  say" 


154  APPENDIX. 

5.  The  rubrical  direction  as  to  the  reading  of  the 
Gospel  has  been  put  in  the  form,  Then,  the  People  all 
standing  up,  he  shall  read  the  Gospel,  saying ;  and  the 
rubric  before  the  Gloria  tibi  has  been  put  in  the  form, 
Here  shall  be  said  or  sung. 

6.  In  place  of  the  first  rubric  after  the  Gloria  tibi  has 
been  substituted  this  rubric,  followed  by  the  Creed  : 

m\\  Then  shall  be  said  the  Creed  commonly  called  the 
Nicene,  or  else  the  Apostles'  Creed  ;  but  the  Creed  may 
be  omitted,  if  it  hath  been  said  immediately  before  in 
Morning  Prayer;  Provided,  That  the  Nicene  Creed 
shall  be  said  on  Christmas-day,  Easter-day,  Ascension- 
day,  Whitsunday,  and  Trinity-Sunday. 

7.  For  the  first  Offertory  Sentence,  there  has  been 
inserted  Acts  xx.  35. 

And  there  have  been  added  to  the  Offertory  Sen- 
tences :  Exod.  xxv.  2  ;  Deut.  xvi.  16,  17  ;  I.  Chron. 
xxix.  11  ;  I.  Chron.  xxix.  14. 

8.  Permission  has  been  given  by  rubric  to  use  the 
Offertory  Sentences  on  any  other  occasion  of  Public 
Worship  when  the  alms  of  the  people  are  to  be  received. 

9.  It  has  been  provided  by  rubric  that,  when  the 
Alms  and  Oblations  are  presented,  there  may  be  sung  a 
Hymn,  or  an  Offertory  Anthem  in  the  words  of  Holy 
Scripture  or  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  under  the 
direction  of  the  Minister. 

10.  The  following  note  has  been  prefixed  to  the  Ex- 
hortation beginning,  "  Dearly  beloved  in  the  Lord  "  : 

But  Note,  That  the  Exhortation  may  be  omitted  if  it 
hath  been  already  said  on  one  Lord's  Day  in  that  same 
month. 

11.  After  the  Preface  beginning,  "  It  is  very  meet, 
right,  and  our  bounden  duty,"  the  Triumphal  Hymn 
with  its  rubrics  reads  as  follows : 


APPENDIX.  155 

1[  Here  shall  follow  the  Proper  Preface,  according 
to  the  time,  if  there  be  any  specially  appointed  ;  or  else 
immediately  shall  be  said  or  sung  by  the  Priest, 

Therefore  with  Angels  and  Archangels,  and  with  all 
the  company  of  heaven,  we  land  and  minify  thy  glo- 
rious Name;  evermore  policing  thee*  and  saying, 

HOLY,  HOLY,  HOLY,  Lord  God  of  hosts,  iPrUst 
Heaven  and  earth  are  full  of  thy  glory :  Glory     and 
be  to  thee,  0  Lord  Most  High.    Amen.  ?">&*• 

12.  In  the  Prayer  of  Consecration,  the  Oblation  and 
the  Invocation  are  printed  as  distinct  paragraphs. 

13.  In  the  Prayer  of  Consecration,  instead  of  the 
words,  "  he  may  dwell  in  them,  and  they  in  him,"  there 
have  been  substituted  "he  may  dwell  in  us,  and  we  in 
him." 

14.  A  change  has  been  made  in  the  first  rubric  after 
the  Prayer  of  Consecration,  so  that  it  reads  as  follows : 

Tf  Here  may  be  sung  a  Hymn. 

15.  The  second  rubric  after  the  Prayer  of  Consecra- 
tion has  been  amended  by  inserting  the  words : 

"  And  sufficient  opportunity  shall  be  given  to  those 
present  to  communicate.'''' 

16.  In  the  next  to  the  last  rubric,  at  the  end  of  the 
Office,  the  word  though  has  been  substituted  for  if. 

17.  The  two  Exhortations,  giving  warning  of  the 
Communion,  are  printed  at  the  end  of  the  Office. 

IX.    IN   THE   MINISTRATION    OP    PUBLIC 
BAPTISM  OF  INFANTS. 

1.  An  addition  has  been  made  to  the  rubric  before 
the  first  Exhortation,  so  that  it  reads  as  follows: 

Tf  If  they  answer,  No:  then  shall  the  Minister  pro- 
ceed as  followeth,  the  People  all  standing  until  the 
Lord's  Prayer. 


156  APPENDIX. 

2.  A  part  of  the  first  sentence  of  the  rubric  before 
the  Gospel  has  been  omitted. 

X.    IN   THE   MINISTRATION   OF   PRIVATE 
BAPTISM  OF  INFANTS. 

1.  The  first  form  of  certification  has  been  changed. 

2.  The  second  form  of  certification  ends  with  the 
words  "doth  witness  to  our  comfort." 

XI.    IN  THE  MINISTRATION  OF  BAPTISM  TO 
SUCH  AS  ARE  OF  RIPER  YEARS. 

1.  The  third  rubric  has  been  omitted;  and  the  fol- 
lowing has  been  inserted  at  and  after  the  end  of  the 
second  rubric : 

And  standing  there,  the  Minister  shall  say, 
Hath  this  person  been  already  baptized,  or  no  ? 
Tf  If  they  answer,  No :  then  shall  the  Minister  (the 

People  all  standing  until  the  Lord's  Prayer)  proceed  as 

followeth. 

2.  The  Thanksgiving  after  the  Lord's  Prayer  has 
been  conformed  to  that  in  the  Service  for  the  Baptism 
of  infants. 

3.  In  the  closing  Exhortation,  and  in  the  second 
rubric  at  the  end  of  the  Service,  slight  verbal  changes 
have  been  made,  and  to  the  rubric  a  clause  has  been 
added  as  follows  : 

"U  And  in  case  of  great  necessity,  the  Minister  may 
begin  with  the  questions  addressed  to  the  candidate,  and 
end  with  the  thanksgiving  following  the  baptism. 

4.  The  following  has  been  placed  as  an  additional 
rubric  at  the  end  of  the  Service : 

^f  If  there  be  reasonable  doubt  concerning  the  baptism 
of  any  person,  such  person  may  be  baptized  in  the  man- 


APPENDIX.  157 

ner  herein  appointed  ;  saving  that,  at  the  immersion  or 
the  pouring  of  water,  the  Minister  shall  use  this  form  of 
xcnrds  : 

If  thou  art  not  already  baptized,  N.,  I  baptize  thee 
In  the  Name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.     Amen. 

5.  For  the  words  "  these  Persons  "  or  "  the  Persons" 
wherever  they  occur  in  the  prayers,  and  for  the  words 
11  these  Persons,"  where  they  occur  the  second  time  in 
the  third  of  the  rubrics  at  the  end  of  the  Service,  there 
have  been  substituted  the  words  "  these  thy  Servants" 

XII.     IN   THE  CATECHISM. 

The  word  "again"  has  been  inserted  in  the  Creed,  as 
in  Morning  and  Evening  Prayer. 

XIII.     IN  THE  ORDER  OF  CONFIRMATION. 

1.  The  first  rubric  has  been  changed,  so  that  it  reads 
as  follows  : 

IT  Upon  the  day  appointed,  all  that  are  to  be  then  con- 
firmed, being  placed  and  standing  in  order  before  the 
Bishop,  sitting  in  his  chair  near  to  the  Holy  Table,  he, 
or  some  other  Minister  appointed  by  him,  may  read  this 
Preface  following  ;  the  People  standing  until  the  Lord's 
Prayer. 

2.  The  following  has  been  inserted  after  the  Preface : 
TT  Then  the  Minister  shall  present  unto  the  Bishop 

those  who  are  to  be  confirmed,  and  shall  say, 
Reverend  Father  in  God,  I  present  unto  you  these 
children  [or  these  persons]  to  receive  the  Laying  on  of 
Hands. 

3.  After  the  Preface  and  the  Presentation  of  the 
Candidates,  there  has  been  inserted  : 


158  APPENDIX. 

IT  Then  the  Bishop,  or  some  Minister  appointed  by 
him,  may  say, 

Hear  the  words  of  the  Evangelist  Saint  Luke,  in  the 
eighth  Chapter  of  the  Book  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 
[Here  follows  Acts  viii.  14-18.] 

4.  The  following  rubric  has  been  inserted  after  the 
final  Blessing : 

TT  The  Minister  shall  not  omit  earnestly  to  move  the 
Persons  confirmed  to  come,  without  delay,  to  the  Lord's 
Supper. 

XIV.  IN  THE  FORM  OF  SOLEMNIZATION  OF 

MATRIMONY. 

A  clause  has  been  inserted  in  the  Exhortation,  so 
that  it  reads  as  follows,  after  the  words  "holy  Matri- 
mony": "which  is  an  honourable  estate,  instituted  of 
God  in  the  time  of  man's  innocency,  signifying  unto  us 
the  mystical  union  that  is  betwixt  Christ  and  his 
Church  :  which  holy  estate  Christ  adorned  and  beauti- 
fied with  his  presence  and  first  miracle  that  he  wrought 
in  Cana  of  Galilee,  and  " — 

XV.  IN   THE  ORDER  FOR   THE  VISITATION 

OF  THE  SICK. 

The  Commendatory  Prayer  has  been  changed  by  the 
omission  of  the  last  clause. 

XVI.     IN  THE  COMMUNION  OF  THE  SICK. 

1.  The  following  rubric  has  been  inserted  between 
the  second  and  the  third  of  the  rubrics  after  the  Gospel  : 

TT  In  the  times  of  contagious  sickness  or  disease,  or 
when  extreme  weakness  renders  it  expedient,  the  follow- 


APPENDIX.  l.Vi 

ing  form  shall  suffice  :  The  Confession  and  the  Absolu- 
tion ;  Lift  up  your  hearts,  etc.,  through  the  Sanetus  ; 
The  Prayer  of  Consecration,  ending  with  these  words, 
partakers  of  his  most  blessed  Body  and  Blood  ;  The 
Communion;  The  Lord's  Prayer ;  The  Blessing. 
2.  The  following  rubric  has  been  added  at  the  end  : 
If  This  Office  may  be  used  with  aged  and  bed-ridden 
persons,  or  such  as  are  notable  to  attend  the  public  Min- 
istration in  Church,  substituting  the  Collect,  Epistle, 
and  Gospel  for  the  Day,  for  those  appointed  above. 

XVII.    IN  THE  ORDER  FOR  THE  BURIAL  OF 
THE  DEAD. 

1.  In  place  of  the  Rubric  and  Anthem  after  the 
Sentences,  there  has  been  substituted  this  rubric,  after 
which  are  printed  separately  the  parts  of  the  former 
Anthem,  each  followed  by  the  Gloria  Patri. 

If  After  they  are  come  into  the  Church,  shall  be  said 
or  sung  one  or  both  of  the  following  Selections,  taken 
from  the  39M  and  90th  Psalms. 

2.  The  following  rubric  has  been  inserted  immedi- 
ately after  the  Lesson  : 

Tf  Here  may  be  sung  a  Hymn  or  an  Anthem  ;  and,  at 
the  discretion  of  the  Minister,  the  Creed,  and  such  fit- 
ting Prayers  as  are  elsewhere  provided  in  this  Book, 
may  be  added. 

3.  The  Lesser  Litany  has  been  inserted  before  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  with  a  new  rubric,  as  follows  : 

If  Then  the  Minister  shall  say, 
Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us. 
Christ,  have  mercy  upon  us. 
Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us. 

4.  After  "  the  grace  of  our  Lord,"  etc.,  there  have 
been  inserted  three  additional  Prayers. 


160  APPENDIX. 

5.  The  following  rubric  has  been  added  : 

^T  Inasmuch  as  it  may  sometimes  be  expedient  to  say 
under  shelter  of  the  Church  the  whole  or  a  part  of  the 
service  appointed  to  be  said  at  the  Grave,  the  same  is 
hereby  allowed  for  weighty  cause. 

6.  At  the  end  of  the  Office  has  been  added  the  form 
to  be  used  At  the  Burial  of  the  Dead  at  Sea,  slightly 
modified. 

XVIII.     IN  THE  CHURCHING  OF  WOMEN. 

A  change  has  been  made  in  the  third  rubric,  so  that 
it  reads  as  follows  : 

%  Then  shall  be  said  by  both  of  them  the  following 
Hymn,  the  woman  still  kneeling. 

XIX.  IN  THE  FORMS  OF  PRAYER  TO  BE 
USED  AT  SEA. 

1.  The  title  before  the  third  Prayer  has  been  changed 
so  as  to  read,  Prayers  to  be  used  in  all  Ships  in  Storms 
at  Sea.  The  prayers  that  have  reference  to  a  storm 
and  those  that  have  reference  to  the  enemy  have  been 
grouped  separately  ;  and  the  Lord's  Prayer  has  been 
placed  immediately  after  the  Absolution. 

2.  The  forms  belonging  to  Thanksgiving  after  a 
Storm  and  those  belonging  to  Thanksgiving  after  a 
Victory  have  been  arranged  under  distinct  headings. 

3.  The  form  of  Committal  at  the  Burial  of  the  Dead 
at  Sea  has  been  omitted  here. 

XX.    IN  THE  VISITATION  OF  PRISONERS. 

1.  The  words  Minister  and  Answer  have  been  omitted 
before  the  Versicles  ;  and  the  Prayers  have  been  placed 


APri.NDix.  161 

together  after  the  Miserere  (the  printing  of  which  is 
omitted),  together  with  a  new  Prayer  substituted  for 
the  Collect. 

2.  After  the  title,  A  Form  of  Prayer  for  Persons 
under  sentence  of  death,  the  rubric  r< 

H  When  a  criminal  is  under  sentence  of  death,  thr 
Minister  shall  proceed  to  exhort  Mm  after  this  form,  or 
other  like. 

3.  In  place  of  the  rubric  after  the  Blessing  the  follow- 
ing rubric  and  notice  are  inserted  : 

IT  At  the  time  of  Execution,  the  Minister  shall  use 
such  devotions  as  he  shall  think  proper. 

Notice.  It  is  judged  best  that  the  Criminal  should  not 
make  any  public  profession  or  declaration. 

4.  The  Prayer  for  Imprisoned  Debtors  is  omitted. 

XXI.     IN  A  FORM  OF  PRAYER  AND  THANKS- 
GIVING. 

1.  The  Anthem  has  been  conformed  to  the  Prayer- 
Book  version  of  the  Psalter  ;  there  has  been  inserted, 
for  the  fourth  verse  of  the  Anthem,  the  seventh  verse 
of  Psalm  cxlvii.,  and  the  Gloria  Patri  is  printed  at  the 
end  of  the  Anthem. 

2.  The  special  Thanksgiving  has  been  changed  to  in- 
clude an  acknowledgment  of  the  "  blessings  of  Thy 
merciful  providence  bestowed  upon  this  nation  and 
people." 

XXII.    IN  THE   PSALTER,  ETC. 

1.  The  141st  Psalm  has  been  assigned  to  the  evening 
instead  of  the  morning  of  the  twenty-ninth  day  of  the 
month. 

2.  In  place  of  the  ten  Selections  of  Psalms,  the  Table 

11 


162  APPENDIX. 

of  Proper  Psalms  and  the  Table  of  Selections  of  Psalms 
are  inserted,  as  in  the  Order  Concerning  the  Service  of 
the  Church. 

3.  The  Selections  of  Psalms  for  Holy  Days,  which 
immediately  precede  the  Psalter,  have  been  omitted. 

4.  The  numbers  of  the  Psalms  are  printed  in  common 
numerals,  and  the  verses  of  Psalm  cxix.  are  numbered 
continuously. 

5.  The  verses  of  the  Canticles  and  the  Psalms  are  in 
every  case  printed  with  the  musical  colon. 

XXIII.  IN  THE  FORM  AND  MANNER  OF 
MAKING,  ORDAINING,  AND  CONSECRATING 
BISHOPS,  PRIESTS,  AND  DEACONS. 

1.  In  the  Ordering  of  Priests  and  in  the  Consecra- 
tion of  Bishops,  provision  has  been  made  for  the  saying 
of  the  Nicene  Creed. 

2.  In  the  Consecration  of  Bishops,  the  longer  para- 
phrase of  the  Vent,  Creator  Spiritus,  has  been  omitted, 
and  in  place  of  the  rubric  Or  this,  there  has  been  in- 
serted : 

If  Or  else  the  longer  paraphrase  of  the  same  Hymn,  as 
in  the  Ordering  of  Priests. 

3.  In  the  Litany  and  in  the  Order  for  the  Adminis- 
tration of  the  Lord's  Supper  as  printed  in  connection 
with  the  Ordinal,  the  same  changes  have  been  made  as 
have  been  made  in  the  same  Services  where  they  are 
printed  elsewhere;  except  that,  in  the  Order  for  the 
Administration  of  the  Lord's  Supper  appended  to  the 
Ordinal,  the  word  "Bishop"  has  been  substituted  for 
the  word  "  Priest." 


APPENDIX.  L68 


XXIV.  IN  THE  FORM  OP  CONSECRATION  OP 

A  CHURCH  OR  (HUM  L 

1.  The  rest  of  the  former  title  has  been  omitted. 

2.  The  Gloria  Patri  is  printed  at  the  end  of  Psalm 
24. 

8.  A  slight  change  has  been  made  in  the  Prayers. 

4.  Alternative  Lessons  have  been  provided,  as  fol- 
lows: First  Lesson,  Genesis  28  v.  10;  Second  Lesson, 
Revelation  21  v.  10. 

5.  In  place  of  the  four  rubrics  after  the  Gospel,  a  new 
one  has  been  inserted. 

6.  In  the  last  Prayer  before  the  Benediction,  the 
eleven  words  next  following  the  words  M  the  saints  upon 
the  earth,"  are  omitted. 

XXV.  IN   AN    OFFICE    OF    INSTITUTION    OP 
MINISTERS  INTO  PARISHES  OR  CHURCHES. 

1.  The  rest  of  the  former  title  has  been  omitted. 

2.  A  change  has  been  made  in  the  first  rubric  after 
the  Letter  of  Institution,  so  that  the  part  before  the 
words,  the  Wardens,  reads  as  follows: 

If  On  the  day  designated  for  the  new  Incumbenfs 
Institution,  at  the  usual  hour  of  Morning  Prayer,  the 
Bishop,  or  the  Institutor  appointed  by  him,  attended  by 
the  new  Incumbent,  and  by  the  other  Clergy  present, 
shall  enter  the  Chancel.  Then  all  the  Clergy  present 
standing  in  the  Chancel  or  Choir,  except  the  Bishop,  or 
the  Priest  who  acts  as  Institutor,  who  shall  go  within 
the  rails  of  the  Altar  ; 

3.  All  reference  to  Institution  by  a  Standing  Com- 
mittee, or  to  the  Institution  of  an  Assistant  Minister, 
has  been  omitted. 


164  APPENDIX. 

4.  The  rubrics  have  been  modified  so  as  to  provide 
for  the  Bishop  as  Institutor,  though  he  may  appoint  a 
Priest  to  act  for  him  in  the  Service,  and  the  Letter  of 
Institution  may  be  read  by  another. 

5.  In  the  rubric  before  the  form  of  delivery  of  the 
books,  the  word  State  has  been  changed  to  Diocesan. 

6.  The  Anthem  Laudate  Nomen  has  been  omitted ; 
and  it  is  provided  that  in  its  place  Psalm  lxviii.  or 
Psalm  xxvi.  shall  be  said  or  sung. 

XXVI.    THE  ARTICLES  OP  RELIGION 

are  printed  at  the  end  of  the  book  and  have  a  distinct 
title-page. 


PREPARATION  OF  THE  STANDARD  BOOK 
OF  1892. 

It  was  the  duty  of  the  committee  appointed 
at  the  General  Convention  of  1889  "  to  prepare 
a  Standard  Prayer  Book,"  to  incorporate  into 
the  existing  book  the  changes  which  had  been 
finally  adopted  in  1886  and  1889,  and  to  pre- 
pare for  the  incorporation  of  those  which 
should  be  finally  adopted  in  1892.  And  it  was 
also  their  duty  to  determine,  as  far  as  possible, 
what  is  the  exact  text  of  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  to  correct  all  typographical  errors,  and 
to  make  arrangements  for  printing  the  book  in 
accurate  form.     The  making  of  the  additions 


APPENDIX.  L66 

and  alterations,  which  had  been  constitutionally 
ordered  by  the  General  Con  vint  inn  in  the  pro- 
cess of  the  work  of  Liturgical  Revision,  was 
comparatively  easy  ;  but  it  was  necessary  to 
much  study  to  matters  connected  with  the 
n  of  the  exact  text  of  the  Prayer 
Book,  and  the  way  in  which  it  should  be  print..  I. 
The  committee,  in  punning  their  work,  had 
before  them  copies  of  the  seven  Standard  edi- 
tions of  the  American  Book  of  Common  Prayer, 
and  of  other  editions  of  value  for  illustrating 
them  ;  English  books  of  various  dates,  and  in 
particular  the  recently  published  fac-simile  of 
the  manuscript  book  appended  to  the  Act  of 
Uniformity  of  16G2  ;  Scottish  and  Irish  books, 
and  copies  of  the  English  Bible  dating  from  the 
first  edition  of  the  Great  Bible,  in  1539  (a  su- 
perb copy  of  which  was  secured  for  their  use), 
to  the  best  modern  editions  of  the  so-called 
Authorized  Version  from  the  presses  of  the  two 
Universities  and  of  the  Queen's  Printers,  with 
reprints  of  earlier  versions.  They  had,  of 
course,  the  advantage  of  much  excellent  work 
that  had  been  done  in  the  preparation  of  earlier 
Standards,  and  in  particular  were  under  obi 
tions  to  the  Standard  of  1793,  edited  by  Bishop 
White,  and  to  that  of  1845,  edited  with  great 
and  painstaking  learning  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  T. 
W.  Coit.     And  they  had  at  their  disposal  the 


166  APPENDIX. 

results  of  much  diligent  labor  which  had  been 
given  for  many  years  to  Prayer  Book  study, 
and  were  specially  indebted  to  the  Kev.  Fred- 
erick Gibson,  the  Rev.  H.  A.  Metcalf,  and  the 
Rev.  Dr.  H.  R.  Percival  for  putting  most  valu- 
able material  at  their  disposal :  while  for  accu- 
rate examination  of  tables  and  correction  of 
final  proofs  they  owed  much  to  the  Rev.  Pro- 
fessor Barbour,  of  the  Berkeley  Divinity  School. 

In  glancing  briefly  at  the  work  of  editing  the 
new  Standard,  it  will  be  well  to  speak  sepa- 
rately of  the  passages  of  Holy  Scripture  other 
than  the  Psalter,  the  Psalter  itself,  and  the 
remaining  portions  of  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer. 

I.  The  Epistles  and  Gospels  in  the  Prayer 
Book,  and  part  of  the  other  passages  from 
Scripture,  are  taken  from  the  version  of  1611, 
commonly  known  as  the  "  Authorized  Version/' 
In  the  years  which  have  elapsed  since  1662, 
when  the  Epistles  and  Gospels  in  the  English 
book  were  taken  from  this  "  last  translation/' 
the  punctuation  and  orthography  of  this  version 
have  been  greatly  changed  ;  but  the  changes 
have  been  made  by  the  responsible  representa- 
tives of  the  King's  Printers  and  of  the  two 
Universities,  with  the  assistance  of  competent 
scholars.  The  first  duty  undertaken  by  the 
committee  was  to  correct    the  Epistles    and 


APPENDIX.  167 

Gospels  by  editions  of  this  version  which  were 
certified  by  the  anthorund  English  publishers. 

The  Psalter,  as  will  bo  stated  presently,  is  in 
the  translation  which  was  mado  for  tho  so-called 
"  Great  Bible  »  of  1539.  From  tho  Great  Bible 
were  also  taken,  but  with  some  modifications, 
most  of  the  Offertory  Sentences,  the  verse  from 
Job  14  :  1  in  the  Burial  Office,  and  the 
prayer  of  blessing  from  2  Cor.  13  :  14.  The 
other  passages  of  Holy  Scripture  contained  in 
the  Prayer  Book,  are  the  Ten  Commandments, 
the  Comfortable  Words  in  the  Communion 
Office,  and  the  verse  beginning  "I  heard  a 
voice n  in  the  Burial  Office,  together  with  the 
three  New  Testament  Hymns  (Benedict us, 
Magnificat,  and  Nunc  dimittis)  and  the 
Benedicite.  These  were  not  taken  from  any 
version  of  tho  Bible,  but  were  translated  for 
the  Services  when  they  were  compiled,  prob- 
ably by  Archbishop  Cranmer  ;  only  the  original 
form  of  the  last  of  the  Comfortable  Words  was 
nearly  that  of  the  Great  Bible.  These  four 
Words  were  inserted  in  the  Order  of  Com- 
munion of  1548,  in  a  form  somewhat  different 
from  that  which  appears  in  tho  present  English 
book ;  and  in  our  book  they  have  been  further 
modified  through  the  influence  of  Bishop  Sea- 
bury's  Communion  Ofli<  •••. 

II.  The  Psalter  in  the  Prayer  Book,  as  has 


168  APPENDIX. 

been  said,  was  taken,  at  the  time  when  the 
Services  of  the  English  Church  were  .put  into 
the  vernacular  or  "vulgar  tongue,"  from  the 
Great  Bible,  the  later  editions  of  which  are 
often  known  as  Cranmer's  Bible.  It  has  been 
generally  believed  that  the  actual  Prayer  Book 
Psalter  was  taken  from  the  fourth  folio  edition 
of  this  version  ;  but  the  researches  of  the  Rev. 
Frederick  Gibson  have  shown  that  in  reality 
it  was  from  editions  of  a  later  date.  There  is, 
then,  no  present  text  of  the  Psalter,  with  mod- 
ern spelling  and  punctuation,  which  stands  in 
exactly  the  same  position  as  the  present  text 
of  the  Authorized  Version  of  the  Bible.  The 
committee  followed  the  text  of  the  Psalter  in 
Dr.  Coit's  Standard  of  1845,  correcting  it 
(when  necessary)  from  the  best  available  Eng- 
lish Prayer  Books,  these  in  turn  from  the 
manuscript  book  of  1662,  and  this  again  from 
editions  of  the  Great  Bible  itself. 

III.  The  work  upon  the  rest  of  the  Prayer 
Book  was  largely  done  by  reading  the  whole 
book,  as  if  aloud,  with  the  view  of  detecting 
inaccuracies  or  infelicities  of  punctuation  ;  by 
comparing  one  part  with  another,  in  order  to 
remove  inconsistencies  or  lack  of  uniformity  ; 
and  by  the  examination  of  all  former  Standards, 
or  editions  illustrating  Standards,  that  the  ex- 
act authorized  text  might  be  determined.     It 


APPENDIX.  L69 

would  not  be  possible,  nor,  if  it  were  possible, 
would  it  be  of  interest  to  the  reader,  to  under- 
take to  mention  at  all  in  detail  the  results  of 
the  labor  which  was  bestowed  upon  this  part 
of  the  work.  Most  of  them  will  never  be  seen 
except  by  the  few  wh<>  shall  oompara  the  new 
book  with  the  old  :  hat  it  is  confidently  be- 
lieved that  they  will  contribute  much  to  the 
understanding  and  the  intelligent  use  of  the 
offices  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 

This  outline  of  the  work  of  the  committee  in 
the  Standard  Book  of  Common  Prayer  may  be 
closed  with  a  quotation  from  their  official  report 
to  the  General  Convention  : 

"  Within  the  last  forty-five  years  much  study 
has  been  given  to  the  English  and  the  Ameri- 
can Prayer  Books,  as  to  their  origins,  their  his- 
tory, their  interpretation,  and  their  text.  Wo 
have  felt  that  it  would  be  a  wrong  to  the  Church 
if  a  report  presented  in  this  year  should  not 
show  the  results  of  this  study,  so  far  as  it  has 
been  made  available  ;  and  we  have  endeavored 
to  present  these  wherever,  under  the  principles 
already  stated,  they  affect  the  determination  of 
the  proper  form  of  our  book.,, 


THE   END. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


;inl\ 


LD  21-100m-9,'48(B399sl6l476 


M181920 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


